Snow Bunting
Plectrophenax nivalis

Conservation status | Common and widespread, numbers probably stable. Most of breeding range is remote from effects of human activity. |
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Family | Longspurs and Snow Buntings |
Habitat | Prairies, fields, dunes, shores. In summer, tundra. Breeds on northern tundra, mainly in areas with rocky outcrops, boulder fields, cliffs, or rocky beaches, generally avoiding unbroken wet tundra. Winters in various kinds of open country, including shortgrass prairie, farmland, beaches, lake shores. |
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Feeding Behavior
Forages while walking and running on the ground. Except when nesting, usually forages in flocks.
Eggs
4-7, sometimes 2-9. Whitish to pale blue-green, marked with brown and black. Incubation is by female, 10-16 days. In some parts of range, male feeds female on nest throughout incubation period, allowing her to spend more time on eggs -- important in cold northern climate. Young: Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave the nest about 10-17 days after hatching. 1 brood per year.
Young
Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave the nest about 10-17 days after hatching. 1 brood per year.
Diet
Mostly seeds and insects. Seeds of grasses, weeds, and sedges make up a major part of diet at most seasons, especially in winter; may also consume buds and leaves in spring. Also eats many insects in summer, including crane flies, other flies, beetles, caterpillars, true bugs, and others, plus some spiders. Young are fed mostly on insects. In coastal areas, may eat tiny crustaceans and other marine life.
Nesting
Males arrive on breeding grounds 3-6 weeks before females, to stake out territories containing suitable nest sites. In territorial and courtship display, male flies up 20-30', then glides down while singing. In courtship on ground, male spreads wings and tail, turns his back to female to show off contrasting pattern, and makes short runs away from her. Nest site is in some protected cavity, as in a deep fissure among rocks; sometimes under manmade debris or in hole in ground. Nest (built by female) is a bulky cup of grass and moss, lined with fine grass, rootlets, plant down, and especially with feathers or hair.
Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
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Migration
Migrates mostly late in fall and early in spring. Strays south of main winter range may be most likely to appear in November.

- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
See a fully interactive migration map for this species on the Bird Migration Explorer.
Learn moreSongs and Calls
Clear whistle or soft buzzy note. Song a sweet warble.Learn more about this sound collection.
How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Snow Bunting
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Climate threats facing the Snow Bunting
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.