Scientific Name:   Plectrophenax nivalis

Length:   5.9 in (15 cm)

Weight:   1.1-1.6 oz (31-46 g)

Wingspan:   11.8 in (30 cm)

Nest:   A nest is built in a protected place such as a hole in the ground or a deep rock crevice. The nest is a bulky cup of grass and moss, lined with fine grass, rootlets, plant down, and especially with feathers or hair.

Eggs:   4-7, sometimes 2-9. Whitish to pale blue-green, marked with brown and black. Incubation is by female, 10-16 days.

Feeding Behavior:   These birds forage either on the ground or within low vegetation by hopping, walking, or running. They also catch flying insects and burrow into the snow for food. They eat insects in summer, including crane flies, other flies, beetles, caterpillars, true bugs, and others, plus some spiders. Young are fed mostly on insects.

Young:   Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave the nest about 10-17 days after hatching. 1 brood per year.

Range:   Snow buntings breed in the high Arctic, in Scandinavia, Iceland, northern Scotland, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Usually, these birds migrate south for winter, those in North America going to southern Canada, to the southern and western coasts of Alaska, and to the USA's Great Plains.

Brief Description:   The bill is normally yellow with a black tip, however the bill is all black in the summer for male snow buntings. The plumage is white underneath and the wings and back have black and white on them. The female and male have a different plumage. During the breeding season, the male is white with black wingtips and a black back, while the female has black wingtips and a reddish-brown color back. Larger than a Dark-eyed Junco, smaller than an American Robin.