Snow Bunting Nests

Snow buntings flying around a remote road in Aitkin County, Minnesota.

Snow buntings are a fairly regular appearance in Minnesota in winter. It’s one of the birds I will watch for on the way to the bog or birding in the southern part of the state. They are generally in large flocks, skittish, and far away. You’re basically driving down a country road and a bunch of white birds with patches of beige burst off the side of the road as you pass.

Male snow bunting singing on a telephone pole in Utqia?vik formerly known as Barrow, AK.

In the Arctic Circle, snow buntings are everywhere, practically yard birds and not so skittish. Part of the appeal of working in Alaska for a summer was the chance to explore the state further (I’ve birded Anchorage and Homer), and especially in the Arctic Circle with the hopes of seeing birds like snow buntings, shorebirds, and snowy owls in their breeding range.

When I landed in Utqia?vik formerly known as Barrow, the northern most point of the United States, the first bird I heard singing loudly was a snow bunting warbling away on top of the airport hangar. They became one of my favorite songs of the trip. Males in breeding plumage are such snazzy looking birds. I immediately fell in love.

Here’s a video I took with my phone, Swarovski scope, and PhoneSkope case so you can hear the song of the snow bunting…and get a sense of the tundra and Midnight Sun:

As we drove around the tree-less town, I noticed people had bird boxes in their yards. That was puzzling to me because the tundra is known for not having trees. What possible bird would use a birdhouse or nest box here? Starlings are in the southern part of Alaska but nowhere near up in the Arctic. House sparrows have managed to not get a foothold in the state of Alaska yet. So…in the land of no trees and no woodpeckers, what bird would evolve to nest in a cavity? What cavities would there be? I soon had my answer.

Female snow bunting in a nest box.

Snow buntings used the nest boxes. It never dawned on me that they would use a bird house. But how and why, I wondered. I hadn’t read their nesting section in Birds of the World before I left for the trip. I think I assumed birds in the Arctic were all some form a ground nester.

Lemming tunnels and trails on the edge of of town.

It turns out that there are cavities in the tundra, in the ground made by lemmings. Lemmings are EVERYWHERE and I mean EVERYWHERE. One of our tour participants gave a squeak becase a lemming startled her when it ran over her foot! I did eventually find some snow buntings using an actual lemming tunnel as a nest. I got some slow mo footage with my iPhone attached to my Swarovski spotting scope for some footage. Because it’s slow mo, I cut out all the time she was actually in the nest feeding or this video would be five mintues long.

I did my trip up to Utqia?vik/Barrow with Zugunruhe Birding Tours which I highly recommend if you like a small group experience.