How to find and photograph Snowy Owls
02nd March 2022
How To Find and Photograph Snowy Owls
Video Version (New March 2022)
Blog Version, originally posted February 2021
A territorial fight between two Snowy Owls before dawn. More images and detail about this incident in the article below.
Each winter my area (New England) receives a magnificent visitor from the Arctic, the Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus). If you are into nature photography or birding, you may see photos of these beauties popping up online and in your social media feed. You get excited and “insta-ly” wonder: How do you find and photograph Snowy Owls?
Where to find Snowy Owls (in winter):
Between mid November and March, Snowy Owl’s migrate away from their high Arctic homes and settle into a pattern of coastal location ranging from Maine to New Jersey (sometimes farther south) or they follow the St. Lawrence River Valley in Eastern Canada and find their way around the Great Lakes states and upper Mid West. On the West coast they are much more rare. Here is a map of this winter's reported sighting created through eBird.
To find location ideas, sign up for Ebird for free and type in Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) in the search field.
How to find and approach Snowy Owls on location: the importance of following Owl Etiquette. Now that you have ideas as to where to go, you still need to learn about owl behavior and preferred habitats to actually find them. And before that, the first thing you should ask yourself is: how do I approach snowy owls in an ethical way when I do find them? This is the most important thing to learn in order to protect the owls. I think that doing so also gives you better photos and a better experience.
A detailed discussion of Owl Etiquette is here on the Project snowstorm website. Basically don't get too close, learn the behavioral signs of getting too close, don't make a crowd around an owl with other photographers, don't feed the owl, and I would add don't post locations of owls on social media.
Speaking of which, when you scroll through social media, you might see many close up photos of the owls and assume you will be able to just walk up to them. It doesn't work that way. They will fly away. The truth about many of these photos is that they are heavily cropped, and shot with a 600mm to begin with. The 1 inch square photo you see on Instagram may hide this reality but if look closely you will see how pixelated these so called close ups are. I mention this to set your expectation for how close you should get.
An example of a typical heavily cropped version of a shot you might see on Instagram:
Here is what the shot looks like uncropped:
This was shot with a 600 mm lens and was probably at least 100 feet away, which has been the closest I have got to a snowy owl without stressing it. This owl was not bothered by my presence and was mostly doing a sleepy pose for the hour I spent with her.
Many other times, Snowy Owls have flushed when I was 500 feet or more away.
How do you know if you are too close to the owl?
If the owl is staring directly at you, you are too close.
The result will be that you will likely flush the owl in a few seconds. This wastes energy for the owl who has a tough task surviving in the first place. It will also prevent you from getting a photo. It will even ruin your dream snowy owl in flight photo, because the bird will turn away from you and all you will get is a shot of a Snowy Owl’s butt.
The Snowy Owl should have signs of relaxed behavior, such as:
Head calmly looking out in different directions in a routine pattern.
Preening.
Rummaging around. I observed this Snowy Owl breaking off sticks and placing them on the ground, possibly over a kill to cache for later?
Yawning
“Sleeping”
Snowy Owl behavior and preferred habitat:
A Snowy Owl perched on a sand dune. During the middle of the day, Snowy Owls will spend hours perched on the ground like this in dunes resting and scanning.
The key to success with any wildlife species is to learn about the animal. A full discussion of these topics is beyond the scope of this article but refer to the following links to learn more:
The Cornell Bird Lab provides a nice starting point for any bird research
There was an interesting article about the Snowy Owl's life in the Arctic in Living Bird (published by the Cornell Bird Lab) in 2015 that is worth a read.
Snowy Owl Behavior
Unlike many other owls that are active only at night, Snowy Owls can be active during the day. That being said, my observations have been that they are moving around most pre-dawn and for the first half hour after sunrise, or right before and after sunset. I have noticed this is also a time when the owl will flush very easily and flush at further distances than during the middle of the day.
During the middle of the day, they like to perch in a dune or out in a marsh and rest. Sometimes they will also perch on tree branches, fence posts, or other objects sticking out of the ground, but I find them more often perching directly on the ground.
Do you see the Snowy Owl on top of the dune?
Often they will have seemingly closed eyes and rotate their heads scanning for threats or opportunistic food chances. In my experience Snowies tolerate a much closer approach by people at this time. I still wouldn’t approach closer than 100 feet at this point, but this is your chance for a close up. If the owl is in the sand dunes, please don't walk into the dunes as you are not supposed to in order to protect that fragile environment.
Interesting behavior can lead to interesting photos
If there is more than one Snowy around, or another raptor or crow, you might get some interesting action shots. Crows and other raptors will try to chase Snowies away. Snowy Owls are territorial and will not tolerate other snowy owls entering their territory. I got to witness what happens if this occurs when I saw two owls fighting in the air, when a rival got too close. It was 30 minutes before sunrise so I couldn’t get a fast enough shutter speed, and they were far away, so these are not the best quality shots. But it sure was interesting to watch!
I don't know if this owl got this wound on her face from the fight, or if it was a deformity.
Getting ready for the flight shot
Perhaps the most coveted shot is to capture a good Snowy Owl in flight image. As previously mentioned though, just walking up to one and spooking it will be bad for the bird and make a bad shot because they will face away from you when flying. Perhaps the best strategy for getting a good flight shot is to locate the owl during the middle of the day, stay a distance a way and wait. This may take a while though, so be prepared and keep your camera mounted on a tripod trained on the bird. I did this to capture the below sequence. It took two hours of waiting in December temps and sitting through a 10 minute sleet/hail squall.
The Snowy Owl will give a few seconds to be ready for the flight shot if you watch its behavior carefully. If its eyes are closed and its resting, it's not going to suddenly take off. Right before taking flight, it will usually raise its head higher than normal, then squat back down, lift its tail feathers, and then immediately take off.
I hope some of this information was helpful. Good luck and I hope you get the opportunity to witness this beautiful Arctic visitor someday!
Video Version (New March 2022)
Blog Version, originally posted February 2021
A territorial fight between two Snowy Owls before dawn. More images and detail about this incident in the article below.
Each winter my area (New England) receives a magnificent visitor from the Arctic, the Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus). If you are into nature photography or birding, you may see photos of these beauties popping up online and in your social media feed. You get excited and “insta-ly” wonder: How do you find and photograph Snowy Owls?
Where to find Snowy Owls (in winter):
Between mid November and March, Snowy Owl’s migrate away from their high Arctic homes and settle into a pattern of coastal location ranging from Maine to New Jersey (sometimes farther south) or they follow the St. Lawrence River Valley in Eastern Canada and find their way around the Great Lakes states and upper Mid West. On the West coast they are much more rare. Here is a map of this winter's reported sighting created through eBird.
To find location ideas, sign up for Ebird for free and type in Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) in the search field.
How to find and approach Snowy Owls on location: the importance of following Owl Etiquette. Now that you have ideas as to where to go, you still need to learn about owl behavior and preferred habitats to actually find them. And before that, the first thing you should ask yourself is: how do I approach snowy owls in an ethical way when I do find them? This is the most important thing to learn in order to protect the owls. I think that doing so also gives you better photos and a better experience.
A detailed discussion of Owl Etiquette is here on the Project snowstorm website. Basically don't get too close, learn the behavioral signs of getting too close, don't make a crowd around an owl with other photographers, don't feed the owl, and I would add don't post locations of owls on social media.
Speaking of which, when you scroll through social media, you might see many close up photos of the owls and assume you will be able to just walk up to them. It doesn't work that way. They will fly away. The truth about many of these photos is that they are heavily cropped, and shot with a 600mm to begin with. The 1 inch square photo you see on Instagram may hide this reality but if look closely you will see how pixelated these so called close ups are. I mention this to set your expectation for how close you should get.
An example of a typical heavily cropped version of a shot you might see on Instagram:
Here is what the shot looks like uncropped:
This was shot with a 600 mm lens and was probably at least 100 feet away, which has been the closest I have got to a snowy owl without stressing it. This owl was not bothered by my presence and was mostly doing a sleepy pose for the hour I spent with her.
Many other times, Snowy Owls have flushed when I was 500 feet or more away.
How do you know if you are too close to the owl?
If the owl is staring directly at you, you are too close.
The result will be that you will likely flush the owl in a few seconds. This wastes energy for the owl who has a tough task surviving in the first place. It will also prevent you from getting a photo. It will even ruin your dream snowy owl in flight photo, because the bird will turn away from you and all you will get is a shot of a Snowy Owl’s butt.
The Snowy Owl should have signs of relaxed behavior, such as:
Head calmly looking out in different directions in a routine pattern.
Preening.
Rummaging around. I observed this Snowy Owl breaking off sticks and placing them on the ground, possibly over a kill to cache for later?
Yawning
“Sleeping”
Snowy Owl behavior and preferred habitat:
A Snowy Owl perched on a sand dune. During the middle of the day, Snowy Owls will spend hours perched on the ground like this in dunes resting and scanning.
The key to success with any wildlife species is to learn about the animal. A full discussion of these topics is beyond the scope of this article but refer to the following links to learn more:
The Cornell Bird Lab provides a nice starting point for any bird research
There was an interesting article about the Snowy Owl's life in the Arctic in Living Bird (published by the Cornell Bird Lab) in 2015 that is worth a read.
Snowy Owl Behavior
Unlike many other owls that are active only at night, Snowy Owls can be active during the day. That being said, my observations have been that they are moving around most pre-dawn and for the first half hour after sunrise, or right before and after sunset. I have noticed this is also a time when the owl will flush very easily and flush at further distances than during the middle of the day.
During the middle of the day, they like to perch in a dune or out in a marsh and rest. Sometimes they will also perch on tree branches, fence posts, or other objects sticking out of the ground, but I find them more often perching directly on the ground.
Do you see the Snowy Owl on top of the dune?
Often they will have seemingly closed eyes and rotate their heads scanning for threats or opportunistic food chances. In my experience Snowies tolerate a much closer approach by people at this time. I still wouldn’t approach closer than 100 feet at this point, but this is your chance for a close up. If the owl is in the sand dunes, please don't walk into the dunes as you are not supposed to in order to protect that fragile environment.
Interesting behavior can lead to interesting photos
If there is more than one Snowy around, or another raptor or crow, you might get some interesting action shots. Crows and other raptors will try to chase Snowies away. Snowy Owls are territorial and will not tolerate other snowy owls entering their territory. I got to witness what happens if this occurs when I saw two owls fighting in the air, when a rival got too close. It was 30 minutes before sunrise so I couldn’t get a fast enough shutter speed, and they were far away, so these are not the best quality shots. But it sure was interesting to watch!
I don't know if this owl got this wound on her face from the fight, or if it was a deformity.
Getting ready for the flight shot
Perhaps the most coveted shot is to capture a good Snowy Owl in flight image. As previously mentioned though, just walking up to one and spooking it will be bad for the bird and make a bad shot because they will face away from you when flying. Perhaps the best strategy for getting a good flight shot is to locate the owl during the middle of the day, stay a distance a way and wait. This may take a while though, so be prepared and keep your camera mounted on a tripod trained on the bird. I did this to capture the below sequence. It took two hours of waiting in December temps and sitting through a 10 minute sleet/hail squall.
The Snowy Owl will give a few seconds to be ready for the flight shot if you watch its behavior carefully. If its eyes are closed and its resting, it's not going to suddenly take off. Right before taking flight, it will usually raise its head higher than normal, then squat back down, lift its tail feathers, and then immediately take off.
I hope some of this information was helpful. Good luck and I hope you get the opportunity to witness this beautiful Arctic visitor someday!
Comments
By Kush Paul: Thank you for this very informative article. I live in the mid west (Madison) and am planning to head to Rudyard Township (MI) or Ashland (WI) by for some Snowy photography opportunities By Drew: Fantastic tips!