What Do Snowy Owls Eat?

With a wingspan of up to 66 inches and a height of 28 inches, the snowy owl (Bubo scandiaca) It is the largest owl in North America and one of the largest in the world.

Originating in the Arctic tundra, the snowy owl can be found throughout the Arctic Circle as far as the upper half of the United States. For North Americans, snowy owls can be seen in New York and the New England states, but they prefer a climate similar to their home in the Arctic tundra. So, what do snowy owls eat?

Snowy owls are efficient predators, and their prey usually live in bushes and short grasses. To hunt, they may perch or hover above potential prey in search of food, usually eating small prey such as voles, lemmings, rodents and birds.

When they do trespass, snowy owls will cross an area with a variety of landscapes and potential prey in search of food. While ornithologists aren’t sure why snowy owls left the tundra, some theories suggest their staple food, lemmings, has become harder to find. Without food, they cannot reproduce. This behavior forces them as far south as Oklahoma in the winter, where they may be forced to diversify their diets.

To learn more about the feeding behavior of these lemming-loving carnivores, keep reading!

Snowy owl takes off in search of prey

Lemmings, lemmings, lemmings

Snowy owls have exceptionally keen eyesight and hearing, and they wait for prey to show up while observing their habitat. Even in the snow-covered tundra, they can hear small animals under the snow, dive into the water, and grab them in their claws. While they can supplement their diet with rabbits, rodents, birds and fish on the tundra, they eat more than 1,600 lemmings a year, or three to five per day.

What do snowy owls eat in the wild?

In the wild tundra, the snowy owl feeds on small prey, mainly lemmings. They also eat voles, birds and rodents, arctic hares, mice, ducks and seabirds. Often thought of as opportunistic hunters, snowy owls are also known to eat fish, amphibians, crustaceans, insects and grouse (a species of grouse).

A snowy owl foraging in the snow

What do snowy owls eat in winter?

Snowy owls start to invade or migrate south in late November and early December. They occasionally stay in the northern United States until April, then return to the tundra for the breeding season. In the United States, when they overwinter, they prey primarily on squirrels, rabbits, mice, ducks, and geese.

What do snowy owls eat in summer?

Snowy owls love to hang out deep in the arctic tundra in Canada’s far north throughout the summer. The area is treeless and vegetation is limited to low shrubs and sedges. Few species survive this far north, but mammals that do include arctic hares, arctic ground squirrels, chinchillas, prairie dogs, lemmings, and pikas, all of which are small species suitable for snowy owls. Rodents. When in their homeland, the lemmings are the go-to.

Lemmings tend to make up a significant portion, if not the majority, of the snowy owl’s diet

What does the little snowy owl eat?

Lesser Snowy Owls are most commonly born in summer and early fall. During this time, the snowy owl subsisted mainly on lemmings in the Arctic. During the first few weeks of life, while the mother sits on them to keep them warm, the father will hunt the lemmings and bring them back to his mate. Then the mother would tear the meat into pieces and feed them to the little owls.

Adapted to the harsh environment, baby owls first leave their nests on foot at three weeks of age, then waddle across the tundra until they are about seven weeks old when they cannot fly. At two months old, they can independently hunt snowy owls’ favorite lemmings. Parents still help their young until they are about ten weeks old, and the owls may travel south as a family unit for the winter in southern Canada and the United States until the young are fully independent as adult snowy owls.

A small snowy owl chick on the ground

What do snowy owls eat?

Arctic foxes are very close to the size of adult snowy owls, so while there may be fights between adults and snowy owls, arctic foxes mainly feed on young snowy owls that are still in their dens. Another predator of the snowy owl is the arctic wolf. However, for the most part, snowy owls are not afraid of predators.

Snowy owl young are rarely left unprotected, but some seagulls have been known to venture into snowy owl nests in search of eggs.

What do snowy owls in the Arctic eat?

In the Arctic, snowy owls mainly feed on lemmings, but they can also eat small rodents, the most abundant small mammal in the region. They may occasionally turn to ptarmigans and waterfowl.

Snowy owl flying low, looking for food

What do snowy owls drink?

Snowy owls get most of their moisture and moisture by eating their prey. There is debate about whether snowy owls eat snow in the tundra, but at the end of the day, owls are capable of drinking. Snowy owls still bathe, so they may have some water to drink while bathing.

Are Snowy Owls Carnivores or Omnivores?

Snowy owls are carnivores because they are birds of prey. This is also a good thing, as vegetation in their natural home environment is sparse.

Snowy owl flying low to the ground looking for prey

How do snowy owls hunt?

Like other owl species, snowy owls have excellent eyesight, but rely on hearing for most of their prey, which is invisible due to snow or dense vegetation. When flying low or perching on hearing or spotting prey, snowy owls attack from above with their sharp talons, stunning and killing the prey.

Snowy Owl Diet FAQs

Do Snowy Owls Eat Arctic Foxes?

Adult arctic foxes are too large to be regular prey for snowy owls; however, snowy owls have been known to prey on young arctic foxes, according to National Geographic. Arctic foxes are aggressive hunters of lemmings, so there is some competition between them.

Do Snowy Owls Eat Fish?

Fish are not the most readily available food source in the Arctic, but in the lower parts of Canada and Alaska Territory, they may prey on arctic char, a close relative of salmon. Few species of fish live this far north, but others that live on the tundra include arctic grayling, whitefish lakes, trout lakes, brook trout, arctic cod, black-spotted pike, and northern pike.

Snowy owls also head to the coastal states while wintering in the U.S., so as they move south, they may feast on fish commonly found in the Atlantic and North Pacific. Snowy owls have been known to sit on the sand in search of prey.

Snowy owl on the ground lookout

Do snowy owls eat arctic hares?

Snowy owls eat arctic hares when lemmings are absent. However, arctic hares are quite large, growing up to 28 inches and can weigh twice as much as snowy owls, so adults prey primarily on young arctic hares.

Do snowy owls eat lemmings?

Lemmings are small arctic rodents that are the main food source for snowy owls. They are also a major source of food for several other predators in the Arctic, so their numbers fluctuate dramatically in four-year cycles, from prolific to endangered. During times of scarcity, snowy owls rarely give birth to surviving young.

Do Snowy Owls Eat Plants?

Snowy owls don’t eat plants. Not only are their beaks incapable of eating and swallowing plants, but they are also unable to digest and utilize the nutrients in plant material except by eating mammals that themselves eat plants, which snowy owls prefer.

snowy owl cry

Do snowy owls eat ducks?

Especially when wintering in southern Canada and the northern United States, snowy owls eat ducks. Snowy owls are actually pretty good at catching birds in flight, but the slow take-off of ducks makes them vulnerable to the claws of fast-flying owls.

Do snowy owls eat berries?

Snowy owls don’t eat berries because they can’t digest anything but meat.

Do Snowy Owls Eat Cats?

Other species of owls are known to eat cats, so they may prey on cats during the winter in Canada and the United States. However, cats are not a regular part of the snowy owl’s diet. That’s not to say snowy owls don’t eat cats, as they are resourceful and have a variety of tastes, but cats are not a common or preferred food source.

Do snowy owls eat mice?

During the winter, snowy owls eat mice. They do prefer rodents, even in their natural habitat, and there are plenty of them in the southern range of their migration patterns. Mice cannot survive in the tundra, so if a snowy owl was going to hunt mice, it would be in southern Canada and the northern US.