Once you have seen a Snowy Owl, you will never forget how striking and beautiful it looks. The owl is predominantly white, peppered with dark brown spotting or barring (mostly in females), and has bright yellow eyes. They are comparable in height to Great Horned Owls but is often heavier due to thick plumage for insulation along with heavily feathered feet. That is because they usually reside in the Arctic and their coloration allows them to blend in.
Ravensbeard’s Tundra, a female snowy owl came to us in 2005-2006 from another rehabber in Stone Ridge. Tundra had a gnarled wing injury from being hit by a car. The vet who saw her recommended amputation and she wound up losing half her wing. Releasing her back to the wild would not be possible without the ability to fly. When threatened, the snowy owl’s instinct is to fly away. As a resident of Ravensbeard in an outdoor enclosure, we must keep an eye on the outside temperature during winter. If it gets down between -10 and -20 Fahrenheit, we must bring her inside or else she will get hypothermia since she is missing some of her plumage.
What was a snowy owl doing in our neck of the woods? Tundra may have been part of an “irruption” cycle – a boom in lemming populations in the Arctic (their prey), allowing Snowy Owls to raise many chicks. These young birds then move south seeking food and space. 2005 to 2006 were irruption years and Tundra may have been part of the ones who migrated south. During this cycle, there are often reports of snowy owls running into trouble because they are not used to being around humans.
As with larger owls that have injuries or amputations to one of their wings, it is difficult for them to be a good educational bird because of feeling unbalanced. That is not to say they cannot become an educational bird, but some time and training will be needed for the owl to get comfortable just being perched on a glove.