On January 3, a winter storm brought eight inches of snow to Washington D.C., and with it, the first sighting of a majestic snowy owl that seems to have taken up residence in the nation’s capital. For fans of Harry Potter, this is the same species as Harry’s sidekick and trusty letter carrier Hedwig.
Over the past week, local birdwatchers have been on high alert hoping for a glimpse of this extremely rare breed that traveled from its home in the Arctic to the mid-Atlantic. So far, it has been seen primarily in Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, using its incredible five-foot wingspan to visit some of the city’s most iconic buildings, including Union Station, the National Post Museum, Senate buildings, and Capitol Police headquarters.
The owl’s piercing yellow eyes and snowy white face create quite the striking image when set against some of our country’s most historic landmarks. In one picture-perfect moment, the owl posed atop the stone head of Greek mathematician Archimedes’ statue at the entrance to Union Station. Most sightings have taken place in the evening or at night when the nocturnal and exclusively carnivorous animal is out hunting the city’s rat population.
With only an estimated 30,000 snowy owls left in the world, it’s extremely rare to see the vulnerable species out in the wild. Seeing one in an urban setting is especially extraordinary considering they spend most of their lives in the remote Arctic.
“Snowy owls are coming from a part of the world where they see almost nothing human, from completely treeless open Arctic tundra,” Scott Weidensaul, a researcher at nonprofit Project SNOWStorm, which tracks snowy owl movements, told the Associated Press.
Weidensaul said while some snowy owls migrate south out of the Arctic every winter, that number experiences a significant spike every three to five years. During these irruption years, an increase in the lemming population (the snowy owl’s primary food source) causes more owl chicks to survive. When it comes time for winter, they end up migrating farther and farther south.
“A lot of the snowy owls we’re seeing now in the East and Upper Midwest are young birds, on their first migration,” Weidensaul said.
That certainly seems to be the case this year. According to eBird, an online user database for birders, snowy owls have been spotted in Kansas, Missouri, Maryland, and as far south as North Carolina and Tennessee this year.
While there’s no telling how long this seasonal visitor will stick around, bird enthusiasts are certainly enjoying the show while they can.
“You could say this species is the rock star of the birding community,” said Jason Berry, an avid birder and conservation officer at the D.C.-based American Bird Conservancy. “This bird would probably be on just about every birder’s top-five list of birds to see in a lifetime.”
