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Snow Bunting

Plectrophenax nivalisOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Snow Bunting Breeding Male Portrait
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General

Snow Bunting: Medium-sized, strikingly white sparrow with black back, central tail, and wing tips. Female is duller, has a red-brown rump, and shows red-brown and gray streaking on head and back. Winter adult and juvenile are duller with brown wash on back, sides, and head.

Range and Habitat

Snow Bunting: Breeds from Aleutians, northern Alaska and Arctic islands south to northern Quebec. Spends winters regularly across southern Canada and upper tier of states to Oregon and Pennsylvania; also found in Eurasia. Nests on high mountain tops. During the winter stays on sandy and shingle coasts, salt marsh, and rough coastal fields.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"chi-chi-churee", "tew"

Interesting Facts

 The Snow Bunting is sometimes colloquially called "snowflake". Even on a warm day, the mostly white plumage of a bunting flock evokes the image of a snowstorm.

 Unlike most passerines, it has feathered tarsi, an adaptation to its harsh environment. No other passerine can winter as far north as this species apart from the Common Raven.

 During the last ice age, it was widespread throughout continental Europe.

 A group of snow buntings are known collectively as a "drift" of buntings.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Snow Bunting
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Buntings, Finches, Sparrows (Emberizidae)_blue
Species Plectrophenax nivalis
Length6.25 - 7.25 Inches
Wingspan12.5 Inches

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting: Medium-sized, strikingly white sparrow with black back, central tail, and wing tips. Bill, legs and feet are black. Forages on ground for seeds, insects, larvae and caterpillars. Swift flight, alternates rapidly beating wings with brief periods of wings pulled to sides.

● Song: "chi-chi-churee", "tew"

● Foraging & Feeding: Snow Bunting: Eats seeds and insects in summer. During winter, gleans ground and snow for seeds.

● Breeding & nesting: Snow Bunting: Four to seven white to blue green eggs with brown and black markings are laid in a nest made of grass and moss, lined with fine grass and feathers, and built under a grassy tussock, in a rocky crevice, on a building, empty oil barrel, or other artificial structure. Incubation ranges from 10 to 16 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Snow Bunting: McKay's Bunting has a white back.

Flight Pattern

Swift flight with rapid wing beats.
Snow Bunting Breeding Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Snow Bunting: Breeds from Aleutians, northern Alaska and Arctic islands south to northern Quebec. Spends winters regularly across southern Canada and upper tier of states to Oregon and Pennsylvania; also found in Eurasia. Nests on high mountain tops. During the winter stays on sandy and shingle coasts, salt marsh, and rough coastal fields.
BreedingMonogamous, Pairs
PopulationFairly common
MigrationMigratory
Weight1.5 Ounces