Snow Buntings

No, they are not baby blankets for cold days. Snow Buntings, Plectrophenax nivalis, are beautiful white, sparrow-shaped birds that made my day late last week. Photo (left) by Kevin Karlson (published with permission). A flock of about 7 of them visited the parking lot area at Tanglewood. They are an arctic bird and seen only sporadically around here and usually during particulary hard winters, yep, makes sense why I am seeing them this year.

Snow buntings are birds of the tundra that breed in North America during the summer in Alaska and Canada. In winter they are found near water or in grassy fields and the sides of roads after a big snowfall. They spend the winter throughout southern Canada and the northern United States (and at similar latitudes in Europe and Asia). They feed on the ground, eating seeds from the stems of weeds during the winter.

They return to the tundra quite early in the spring because there is much territorial competition to deal with. Depending on the weather of any year, they might travel back to their snowy breeding grounds anywhere between February and April.

I feel lucky to have seen them especially since I haven't seen one in over 10 years.
They are one of Audubon's "Common Birds in Decline", with their population decreasing 64% in 40 years, which makes me feel even more grateful to have seen them. I am not sure how people get through the winter without noticing the birds, but you shouldn't.

Take a look at the beautiful Snow Bunting and learn more about them at one of my favorite birding websites:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Snow_Bunting.html