Snow Buntings – “Snowbirds” of a different sort

Jan 28, 2010

by Steve Blight

Snow Bunting, most likely a female in breeding plumage. Photo: Donna Dewhurst, US Fish and Wildlife Service

It’s the heart of winter in the Land O’ Lakes, and many of our summer birds are spending the winter under the tropical sun of Mexico and parts further south. Lucky them. However some birds, like the Snow Bunting, choose southern Canada and the northern USA as their preferred place to spend the winter. By Christmas, the majority of Snow Buntings have arrived on their wintering areas just in time to enjoy the first big snowfalls of winter.

The Snow Bunting is about the size of a large sparrow, with longish wings and weighing from 26 - 50 grams, or about 1- 2 ounces. The breeding male is unmistakable, with all white plumage and a black back. The breeding female is grey-black where the male is solid black and white elsewhere. In their winter plumage both sexes are a mottled mixture of pale ginger, blackish and white. The bill is yellow with a black tip, but all black in summer males.

In winter, Snow Buntings are usually seen in flocks, feeding on the seeds of weeds that poke up through the snow. They are ground feeders, running rapidly from one weed to another, occasionally jumping up to snatch seeds from high up on the bare stalks. When the field has been worked over, they all take to the air, more or less at once. This is when they are most commonly seen by rural residents and visitors – wheeling flocks of black, white and brown patterned birds flying past our cars and homes on bright winter days. When the snowpack deepens and covers the tops of the weeds, Snow Buntings can often be seen at road sides and in barnyards. In mid to late winter, I have often seen them foraging for food at the edges of manure piles and on manure covered fields.

By March, their northward migration has begun. Male Snow Buntings head north, first to stake out and defend the best nesting sites on the treeless Arctic tundra. A few weeks later the males are joined by the females where they nest in rock crevices, cracks in cliffs and other stony cavities. There they raise from four to seven young during the long days of the short Arctic summer.

Male Snow Buntings develop their distinctive black and white breeding plumage in a fascinating way. In late summer the male looks brownish with a brown and black striped back. Underneath the coloured feather tips, the back feathers are pure black and the body feathers all are white. During the winter the male wears off all of the feather tips by actively rubbing them on snow, and he is immaculate white and jet black by the time breeding begins.

Conservation of Snow Buntings is generally not reported to be a problem. Extensive areas of both breeding and winter habitat are available, and Snow Buntings are not a game bird species. Nonetheless, several people I know have noticed that they don’t seem to be as common as they once were, perhaps suggesting that their populations may need more careful study. But for the foreseeable future, it would appear that Snow Buntings will continue to be an interesting part of the winter landscape in the Land O’Lakes area, and that is a good thing.

Please feel free to report any observations to Lorraine Julien at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or Steve Blight at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.