As one of the most iconic Arctic birds, the snowy owl has a distinct appearance with its bright white plumage that echoes its snowy habitat. But does the snowy owl's white coloration ever change? Read on to about the snowy owl's plumage and how it adapts to its environment. Are snowy owls (Quebec's provincial bird!) white year-round, or do their coats change in the summer? -Georgina St.
Paul, Magog, Que. This handy coat-changing cammo trick, used by, for example, Arctic foxes and snowshoe hares, isn't shared by snowy owls. But their year-round light plumage-plus their bulky bodies, layers of down, and low metabolism.
If snowy owls are known for one thing, it's their white plumage. Their coloring helps them blend in with the frost-covered environments they call home. Wildlife photographer Julie Maggert has been taking pictures of snowy owls for years.
So when she heard that a strange, orange. He added that "the pigmentation is not very symmetrical and appears on the parts of a normal snowy owl that are white." He surmised that if the bird had a mutation, it would have changed the owl's black patterns, or eumelanin, to orange, or pheomelanin. Professional photographer Bill Diller captured images of a snowy owl in Huron County, Mich.
The reddish-orange coloration in the snowy owl are thought to be the result of an encounter with de-icing fluid used at airports, according to Scott Weidensaul, co-founder of Project SNOWstorm, one of the world's largest collaborative research projects focused exclusively on snowy owls. (Photos by. In January, birder and photographer Bill Diller photographed an odd sight: a brilliant orange-red snowy owl, a creature that is normally snow-white with a few flecks of brown.
The colorful bird, seen in Huron County, Michigan, has since been dubbed Creamsicle or Rusty by other owl enthusiasts. While snowy owls are typically known for their white plumage, the presence of orange coloring on this particular owl makes it exceptionally rare. A researcher at Michigan State University who has studied bird colorations believes the owl's unusual coloring was likely triggered by environmental factors.
"It may be a genetic thing," McWhirter. A photographer captures an orange snowy owl caused by a genetic mutation; the discovery surprises scientists. Others have since seen and photographed the owl.
Lest anyone be confused, Project SNOWstorm does not use color-marking to track snowy owls, nor do we have anything to do with this unfortunate Michigan bird. The Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) is unusual because in addition to being white, it also shows sexual color dimorphism. Both sexes exhibit delayed plumage maturation.
As yearlings, males and females are heavily marked with brown bars and spots on a white.