Snow buntings are protected by the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
US Migratory Bird Act: protected
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
The primary predators of snow buntings are arctic foxes and snowy owls. In order to protect themselves, snow buntings hide their nests amongst the rocky terrain. Their white wings also help to camouflage the birds against their snowy habitat.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Snow buntings are most commonly identified by their distinct white wings; in fact it is these wings that lend them the name "snowflakes". While the wings of this species provide a defining characteristic, the two sexes do not always look alike. The male is slightly larger and has mainly black and white coloring. The white is most visible on the underbelly, wings, and facial area. The male's tail is black tipped and the bill and feet are also black. The female snow bunting looks similar to the male; however, what is black on the male becomes a less brilliant grayish brown on the female. The white of the wings is also limited to a smaller patch of the female's inner wing. Despite the differences seen in the breeding months, in winter, male and female snow buntings look alike. Both look like the breeding female with inky black feathers turning a duller shade of grayish ginger brown. The bill also turns a yellowish orange. Yet even with the similarities, the male still exhibits a whiter wing. Throughout the winter, the dull plumage gradually wears away, revealing again the beautiful black and white feathers of a male snow bunting ready to mate.
Snow buntings are 16.51 to 19.05 cm long, weigh about 40 g and have wingspans of 30.48 to 33.02 cm.
Average mass: 40 g.
Range length: 16.51 to 19.05 cm.
Range wingspan: 30.48 to 33.02 cm.
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger; sexes colored or patterned differently
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Average mass: 41.8 g.
Little is known about the lifespan/longevity of snow buntings.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 115 months.
Plectrophenax nivalis is a migratory bird. In the summer breeding season, it makes its home hidden in rocky, bare mountain slopes. During the winter months Plectrophenax nivalis can be found in coastal fields, salt marshes, and agricultural areas.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; polar ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: tundra ; mountains
Aquatic Biomes: coastal
Wetlands: marsh
Other Habitat Features: agricultural
Snow buntings are found in both the nearctic and palearctic regions, including northern Europe, Russia, and Canada from early April to mid-September. After migrating in mid- to late-September, snow buntings can be found in southern Canada and the northern United States.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native ); palearctic (Native )
Other Geographic Terms: holarctic
Snow buntings are ground feeders that live primarily on seeds, leaf buds, and insects. Young snow buntings are fed exclusively arthropods, including both insects and arachnids. After migrating south, snow buntings that nest along the sea coast add crustaceans to their diets.
Animal Foods: insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Plant Foods: leaves; seeds, grains, and nuts
Primary Diet: carnivore (Insectivore ); omnivore
Snow buntings impact their ecosystem the most through the food chain. They eat arthropods, seeds, and leaf buds. Since they associate themselves with other field birds, it is likely that all the birds in the environment compete for resources. Snow buntings are also prey to arctic foxes and snowy owls. As an important member of the food chain, snow buntings help maintain the delicate balance of their ecosystems.
Little is known of snow buntings's effects on humans. However, they do provide pleasure for many bird watchers. For instance, in Alaska snow buntings are cavity-nesting birds and some people enjoy building birdhouses so they can observe the birds.
Positive Impacts: ecotourism
There are no known adverse affects of Plectrophenax nivalis on humans.
The call of the snow bunting is used in mating. The male attracts his mate with a warbled song, which is usually delivered while he is sitting or in circular flight.
Communication Channels: acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Snow buntings are generally considered to be monogamous. While this is true, there is extreme competition between the males. The more experienced males will return to the summer breeding grounds approximately three to six weeks before the females arrive. It is during this time that they claim their territory and aggressively defend it. It is also likely that the males return to the same territory year after year. Once the females arrive, the male snow buntings attracts them with their warbled song that many describe as finch-like. When a female approaches, the male dives and pursues her. The chase ends with mating.
Mating System: monogamous
Snow buntings breed farther north than any other known land bird. The breeding season begins in late May, after the female snow buntings arrive. They build their nests with grass and moss and line them with feathers and fur. In hopes of avoiding predation, these birds hide their nests in the rocky terrain.
Snow buntings usually lay four to six eggs each season. The eggs are white with a ring of reddish brown spots around the largest end. The incubation period ranges from four to ten days and during this time the males feed the nestbound females. In the extreme cold, the eggs would not hatch if they did not have the mother's constant warmth. The chicks fledge in ten to fifteen days.
It is commonly said that snow buntings raise only one brood of four to six young a year. While this is predominately the case, studies by D. Nethersole Thompson showed that nine out of nineteen pairs raised a second brood.
Breeding interval: Snow buntings generally breed once yearly.
Breeding season: The breeding season begins in late May, after the female snow buntings arrive.
Average eggs per season: 5.
Average time to hatching: 10-14 days.
Average fledging age: 10-15 days.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Average time to hatching: 12 days.
Average eggs per season: 5.
The incubation period for snow buntings ranges from four to ten days and during this time the males feed the nestbound females. In the extreme cold, the eggs would not hatch if they did not have the mother's constant warmth. The nestling period of snow buntings usually lasts ten to fifteen days. During this time the parents feed their nestlings almost exclusively arthropods. Since snow buntings are social birds and travel in flocks it is assumed that the young birds join the parental flock after fledging.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement; altricial ; pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female)
A medium-sized (6-7 ½ inches) bunting, the male Snow Bunting in summer is most easily identified by its white head and breast, black back, and notched tail. In winter, males become browner on the back, head, and rump while maintaining conspicuous white patches on the wings. Female Snow Buntings in summer are mottled gray above and white below, similarly becoming browner in the winter. Snow Buntings occur across a wide portion of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, this species breeds along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from Alaska to eastern Canada and Greenland, wintering across southern Canada and the northern United States south to the Mid-Atlantic region. In Eurasia, this species breeds in Iceland, Scotland, northern Scandinavia, and Russia, wintering as far south as Germany, Central Asia, and northern Japan. In summer, Snow Buntings breed on dry tundra with rocky outcrops for nesting and vegetated areas for feeding. In winter, this species may be found in a variety of open habitats, including snowy fields, dunes, and riverbanks. Snow Buntings primarily eat seeds and grains, but may also eat insects when they are available in the warmer months. Due to its remote breeding habitat, most birdwatchers never see Snow Buntings during the summer. In winter, this species may be observed in large flocks foraging for food on grasslands or fields. Snow Buntings may be seen walking or running on the ground as well as in the air flying between feeding areas. This species is primarily active during the day.
A medium-sized (6-7 ½ inches) bunting, the male Snow Bunting in summer is most easily identified by its white head and breast, black back, and notched tail. In winter, males become browner on the back, head, and rump while maintaining conspicuous white patches on the wings. Female Snow Buntings in summer are mottled gray above and white below, similarly becoming browner in the winter. Snow Buntings occur across a wide portion of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, this species breeds along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from Alaska to eastern Canada and Greenland, wintering across southern Canada and the northern United States south to the Mid-Atlantic region. In Eurasia, this species breeds in Iceland, Scotland, northern Scandinavia, and Russia, wintering as far south as Germany, Central Asia, and northern Japan. In summer, Snow Buntings breed on dry tundra with rocky outcrops for nesting and vegetated areas for feeding. In winter, this species may be found in a variety of open habitats, including snowy fields, dunes, and riverbanks. Snow Buntings primarily eat seeds and grains, but may also eat insects when they are available in the warmer months. Due to its remote breeding habitat, most birdwatchers never see Snow Buntings during the summer. In winter, this species may be observed in large flocks foraging for food on grasslands or fields. Snow Buntings may be seen walking or running on the ground as well as in the air flying between feeding areas. This species is primarily active during the day.
Snow buntings lay 1-5 eggs in a clutch.
The snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) is a passerine bird in the family Calcariidae. It is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms in central Scotland and the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska-Yukon border, as well as the Cape Breton Highlands. The snow bunting is the most northerly recorded passerine in the world.[2]
The snow bunting was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the buntings in the genus Emberiza and coined the binomial name Emberiza nivalis. He specified the locality as Lapland.[3] It is now placed in the genus Plectrophenax that was introduced in 1882 by the Norwegian born zoologist Leonhard Stejneger with the snow bunting as the type species.[4][5] The genus name Plectrophenax is from Ancient Greek plektron, "cock’s spur", and phenax "imposter", and the specific nivalis is Latin for "snow-white".[6]
The snow bunting was formerly classified in the family Emberizidae, which included American sparrows, buntings, towhees and finches. All these species came into existence after a broad geologically recent radiation of passerine birds. However, it is now part of the narrower family Calcariidae, which also contains the longspurs. Despite the wide distribution of this species there are only very small differences between different phenotypes.[7]
Four subspecies are recognised, which differ slightly in the plumage pattern of breeding males:[5][8]
It is very closely related to the Beringian McKay's bunting, which differs in having even more white in the plumage. Hybrids between the two occur in Alaska,[8][9] and they have been considered conspecific by some authors,[10][11] though they are generally treated as separate species.[12]
The species also mated with a Lapland Longspur creating a hybrid. The first photographs of this hybrid were taken in April 2011, during its spring migration.[13]
The snow bunting is a sexually dimorphic, medium-sized passerine bird. This passerine is a ground-dwelling species that walks, runs and could potentially jump if needed.[7] It is fairly large and long-winged for a bunting. It measures 15 cm with a wingspan of 32–38 cm (13–15 in) and weights 30 to 40 grams.[8][7][14] The bill is yellow with a black tip, and is all black in summer for males. The plumage is white in the underparts and the wings and back have black and white on them. The female and male have a different plumage. During the breeding season, the male is white with black wingtips and a black back, while the female has black wingtips and a rufous back. During the winter, they will both have a rufous colouration in the back. In the spring, the buntings will not go through a moult as other passerines do, instead the breeding colouration comes with the wearing and abrasion of the feathers.[7] 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.[8][14]
This species is often confused with McKay's bunting (Plectrophenax hyperboreus) due to the similar colouration of their plumage. Even more, the challenge of identification becomes harder when these two species hybridize at the boundaries of their territories.[7] Another similar species is the horned lark, although it has a larger black tail and it has a smaller white patch on the wings.[15]
The call is a distinctive rippling whistle, per,r,r,rit and the typical Plectrophenax warble hudidi feet feet feew hudidi.
Snow buntings use vocalizations to communicate among each other and males will have a song to attract the female.[16] The communication calls are done by both the male and the female and they tend to be emitted in flight or in the ground, while the males will often emit the song from a perching position or in a flight display. The males will start singing as soon as they will reach the breeding grounds, and will stop once they find a mate.[7] Studies have shown that the quality and the rate at which a song is emitted affect the reproductive success of a male. The rate of a song measured by the number of strophes per minute is limited by the foraging needs of the male; therefore, a male that is able to sing more frequently shows that he is more successful and effective in his foraging behavior. The song becomes an indicator of the parental care qualities of the male, since having an effective foraging behavior will provide a better probability of survival of the nestlings. Females will then choose their mates based on their song rate.[17] Within snow buntings, vocalizations in males are unique to each individual, although there is certain syllable sharing between one another. The uniqueness of each song reveals a capacity of recognition between individuals and has an effect in the individual fitness and reproductive success.[16] The songs have duration of 2 seconds and have a frequency of 2 to 6 kHz. Each song is composed of similar and dissimilar figures that create different motifs that will alternate and repeat, resulting in a unique pattern for every male individual.[17]
The snow bunting lives in very high latitudes in the Arctic tundra. There is no apparent limit to its northern range, while the southern range is limited by the duration of daylight, which influences their reproductive activity.[18] This species is found in the high Arctic tundra of North America, Ellesmere Island, Iceland, higher mountains of Scotland, Norway, Russia, North Greenland, Siberia, Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land.[14][19] During the winter, this bird migrates to the circumglobal northern temperate zone including the south of Canada, north of the United States, north of Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and east to central Asia.[2][14] During the last ice age, the snow bunting was widespread throughout continental Europe.[20]
During the breeding period the snow bunting looks for rocky habitats in the Arctic.[7] Since the vegetation in the tundra is low growing, this bird and its nestlings are exposed to predators, and in order to ensure the survival of its offspring, the snow bunting nests in cavities in order to protect the nestlings from any threat.[21] During this period, buntings also look for a habitat rich in vegetation such as wet sedge meadows and areas rich in dryas and lichens.[7] In the winter, they seek open habitats such as farms, barren fields, and lakeshores, where they feed on seeds in the ground.[22]
The snow buntings migrate to the Arctic to breed and they are the first migrant species that arrives in these territories. They must gain at least 30% of body mass before migration. The males will arrive first at the beginning of April, when the temperature could reach −30 degrees Celsius. This early migration could be explained by the fact that this species is highly territorial and the quality of the nesting area is crucial to their reproductive success. Females will arrive four to six weeks later, when the snow starts to melt. They tend to migrate in small flocks and have an undulating flight at a moderate height.[7]
The birds overwinter in northern temperate zones in open fields and forms moving flocks that can number into the hundreds.[8][7] They will leave the Arctic at the middle and end of September, although some will start the migration at the beginning of November. The female leaves first and tends to winter in more southern territories than the male, while the juveniles will leave the Arctic even later than the adults.[7]
The migration is nocturnal and the birds are able to detect the geomagnetic field of the earth in order to guide themselves to their breeding and overwinter territory.[2] The orientation of the snow bunting during migration is independent of any type of visual cue. Furthermore, studies have shown that only those individuals with adequate energy storage will be able to select seasonally appropriate directions during their migration.[23]
From the fall to the spring the snow bunting eats a variety of weeds such as knotweed, ragweed, amaranth, goosefoot, aster, and goldenrod and also eats various types of grass seeds. During this season it will forage in the snow collecting seeds from lower stems. During the summer their diet includes seeds of crowberry, bilberry, bistort, dock, poppy, purple saxifrage and invertebrates such as butterflies, true bugs, flies, wasps and spiders. The nestlings are fed exclusively on invertebrates. Snow buntings also prey on basking spiders by throwing rocks around and less regularly they will try to catch invertebrates in flight.[7]
Snow buntings have a monogamous behaviour in which the males have a positive impact in the reproductive success of the female, although they are not essential to the survival of the nestling.[24] The male will follow the female during her fertile period to make sure that she will not mate with any other male.[24] The nest sites provide safety but bring other challenges to snow buntings, since in rock cracks and fissures the microclimate could be harsh, the incubation time might be longer for this species and there is a risk that the lower temperatures kill the embryo. To overcome this challenge, the male will bring food to the female during the incubation time, in this way she will be able to constantly control the temperatures of the nest microclimate improving the hatching success and reducing the incubation time.[7]
This passerine lays eggs as soon as the ambient temperature is above 0 degrees Celsius[25] The eggs are blue-green, spotted brown, and hatch in 12–13 days, and the young are already ready to fly after a further 12–14 days.[14]
The courtship behaviour of snow buntings varies in different parts of the world. In Greenland, the male will have a threat display to ensure his territory. This display will consist of very loud calls, the male will lower its head down and will turn completely to face the newcomer. The males will also have a ceremonial flight to attract the female, in which they will reach a height of 30 to 50 feet, then they will glide, they will sing the song very loudly and will then keep on singing from a perching position.[19]
Several indices suggest that climate change could potentially have an important impact on the snow bunting's populations. The Arctic oscillation index (AO) is a regional climate index that helps to predict ecological processes. In the Arctic, when the AO index is in a positive phase, there are higher winter temperatures and precipitation, followed by an earlier and warmer spring, and the summer is cloudy and humid with lower temperatures. Usually the AO index tends to oscillate from a positive to a negative phase, but during the last past 40 years, the AO index has remained in the positive phase. Studies have shown that warmer springs trigger an early breeding behavior in the snow buntings that mismatches the peak of their food sources, leading to a lower success rate of the hatchlings. Even more, the higher temperatures will bring to the Arctic other species that will compete with the snow bunting. It is also thought that higher temperatures might allow greater survival of second broods in the snow bunting species.[25]
Illustration of adult & juvenile snow buntings by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1905.
Adult breeding male P. n. insulae, Iceland
Adult winter male, England
Adult breeding male, Scotland
P. n. nivalis, in spring
Adult in winter plumage, Germany
ID composite
Eggs of snow bunting MHNT
The snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) is a passerine bird in the family Calcariidae. It is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms in central Scotland and the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska-Yukon border, as well as the Cape Breton Highlands. The snow bunting is the most northerly recorded passerine in the world.
