Classroom lesson 路 Wildlife馃嚚馃嚘 Canada

The snowy owl

An Arctic hunter that flies in the daytime

A white snowy owl with yellow eyes perched on a wooden post

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Snowy owls are large, mostly white owls that live in the high Arctic of Canada, including the territory of Nunavut. Unlike most owls, which fly at night, the snowy owl is happy hunting in the daytime - because in the Arctic summer, the sun barely sets at all.

Tell me more

Snowy owls are one of the heaviest owls in the world. The males are almost pure white, which helps them disappear against the snow. The females have darker markings - little stripes and spots - that help them blend in when they are sitting on a nest on the rocky ground.

Their eyes are huge and bright yellow. An owl's eyes can't move side to side like ours - they are fixed in their sockets. That is why owls have to turn their whole head to look around. A snowy owl can turn its head almost three-quarters of the way around its body without moving its feet.

They have feathered feet - even their toes are covered in soft white fluff. Most birds have bare scaly legs, but in the Arctic, feathered feet act like fluffy boots, keeping the owl warm on the snow.

Most owls go 'hoo'. The snowy owl can do that too, but it also barks, whistles and rattles. The young owls are noisy in the nest, calling for food. The Inuit, who live in the same lands as the owls, have known and respected them for thousands of years.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Most owls fly at night. Why might it make sense for an Arctic owl to fly in the day instead?
  2. 02Snowy owls have feathered feet. What other animal adaptations have you noticed that help them deal with cold?
  3. 03If you could turn your head three-quarters of the way around, how would you use that superpower?
Try this

Classroom activity

Try, sitting still, to count how many things you can see without moving your eyes - then without moving your head. Compare. An owl can't move its eyes at all, which is why it has to turn its head. Talk about which animals you know that have eyes on the side vs. eyes on the front.