This regal owl rose to fame in film and is one of the few birds that can even get ‘non-birders’ to come for a look. Male Snowy Owls are darker and more marked when younger but become mostly white as adults. Adult females retain their dark markings. All Snowy Owls have catlike yellow eyes. Harry Potter’s Hedwig was, in fact, played by a male Snowy Owl! While Great Gray owls are the tallest, Snowy Owls are the heaviest North American owls and have been represented in European cave paintings.

Whether the tundra or the Great Plains, an airport field or beach dunes, Snowy Owls like treeless places and wide-open spaces. Because they often sit right on the ground to hunt, they prefer rolling terrain where they can find a vantage to survey the surrounding area. On their wintering grounds, they’ll also perch atop a fencepost, hay bale, building, telephone pole, grain elevator—anywhere with a good view. At their latitudes, Snowy Owls hunt in nearly 24-hour daylight, and their thick plumage keeps them cozy.