70birds that Nest in Birdhouses
Snow Bunting
Plectrophenax nivalis
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Calcariidae
Genus: Plectrophenax
Species: nivalis
La. passer sparrow, small bird
La. forma form, kind, species
La. calcaria spurs
La. idae appearance, resemblance
Gr. plektron rooster’s spur
Gr. phenax imposter (refers to the hind claw)
La. nix, nivis snow
La. nivalis snowy
About seven inches long and plump. Predominantly white on whole head, neck, rump, and underneath. Wings mixed black and white. Black scapulars (upper wing feathers), inner secondaries (middle wing feathers), end half of primaries (longest wing feathers), back and inner tail feathers. Darker in the autumn gradually becoming more white again in winter.

Snow buntings are birds of the tundra, circumpolar in the Arctic regions, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Scandinavia and Siberia migrating south in the autumn to the Scottish Highlands, over Europe, eastern Asia, Canada and the U.S., appearing around Hudson Bay around September and further south in about another two months reaching the upper U.S. around December.
A few have been recorded nesting as far south as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Normally they do not winter further south than Illinois or New York, but occasionally they wander as far as Kansas and Virginia.
They are content playing and singing during snow storms when the temperature is thirty degrees below zero.
Snow buntings are ground feeders of various seeds, buds, insect larvae and small shell fish. Flocks forage for weed shoots penetrating snow covered fields.
They are forced south not by the severe cold and deep snow cover so much as the deprivation of its food source, moving northward again as early as February.
Snow buntings build warm bulky nests of stems, grass and moss lined with feathers and fur hair in rock crevices on barren hillsides, in cavities in sand banks and in nest boxes.
Females lay three to seven dull white speckled eggs with a faint blue-green tint which hatch after about 2 weeks incubation and young fly in about another 2 weeks.
The Snow Bunting Birdhouse has a 5″ by 5″ floor, 8″ inside floor to ceiling, 1 3/4″ diameter entrance hole located 6″ below the roof and ventilation openings.
Make with cedar, pine or other softwood rough-cut on both sides.
Assemble with corrosion resistant screws fit to pre-drilled countersunk pilot holes.
Secure a hinged roof with shutter hooks for easy access.
Place a few wood chips, not saw dust, on the floor.
Mount this nest box on a post or the wall of a house or shed.
Remove the nest and clean the box after the season is past.
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70birds that Nest in Birdhouses
Snow Bunting
Plectrophenax nivalis
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Calcariidae
Genus: Plectrophenax
Species: nivalis
La. passer sparrow, small bird
La. forma form, kind, species
La. calcaria spurs
La. idae appearance, resemblance
Gr. plektron rooster’s spur
Gr. phenax imposter (Re: the hind claw)
La. nix, nivis snow
La. nivalis snowy
About seven inches long and plump. Predominantly white on whole head, neck, rump, and underneath. Wings mixed black and white. Black scapulars (upper wing feathers), inner secondaries (middle wing feathers), end half of primaries (longest wing feathers), back and inner tail feathers. Darker in the autumn gradually becoming more white again in winter.

Snow buntings are birds of the tundra, circumpolar in the Arctic regions, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Scandinavia and Siberia migrating south in the autumn to the Scottish Highlands, over Europe, eastern Asia, Canada and the U.S., appearing around Hudson Bay around September and further south in about another two months reaching the upper U.S. around December.
A few have been recorded nesting as far south as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Normally they do not winter further south than Illinois or New York, but occasionally they wander as far as Kansas and Virginia.
They are content playing and singing during snow storms when the temperature is thirty degrees below zero.
Snow buntings are ground feeders of various seeds, buds, insect larvae and small shell fish. Flocks forage for weed shoots penetrating snow covered fields.
They are forced south not by the severe cold and deep snow cover so much as the deprivation of its food source, moving northward again as early as February.
Snow buntings build warm bulky nests of stems, grass and moss lined with feathers and fur hair in rock crevices on barren hillsides, in cavities in sand banks and in nest boxes.
Females lay three to seven dull white speckled eggs with a faint blue-green tint which hatch after about 2 weeks incubation and young fly in about another 2 weeks.
The Snow Bunting Birdhouse has a 5″ by 5″ floor, 8″ inside floor to ceiling, 1 3/4″ diameter entrance hole located 6″ below the roof and ventilation openings.
Make with cedar, pine or other softwood rough-cut on both sides.
Assemble with corrosion resistant screws fit to pre-drilled countersunk pilot holes.
Secure a hinged roof with shutter hooks for easy access.
Place a few wood chips, not saw dust, on the floor.
Mount this nest box on a post or the wall of a house or shed.
Remove the nest and clean the box after the season is past.
70birds that Nest in Birdhouses
Snow Bunting
(Fish Hawk, Sea Hawk)
Birds | Birdhouses | Plans | Home
Plectrophenax nivalis
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Calcariidae
Genus: Plectrophenax
Species: nivalis
La. passer sparrow, small bird
La. forma form, kind, species
La. calcaria spurs
La. idae appearance, resemblance
Gr. plektron rooster’s spur
Gr. phenax imposter (refers to the hind claw)
La. nix, nivis snow
La. nivalis snowy
About seven inches long and plump. Predominantly white on whole head, neck, rump, and underneath. Wings mixed black and white. Black scapulars (upper wing feathers), inner secondaries (middle wing feathers), end half of primaries (longest wing feathers), back and inner tail feathers. Darker in the autumn gradually becoming more white again in winter.

Snow buntings are birds of the tundra, circumpolar in the Arctic regions, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Scandinavia and Siberia migrating south in the autumn to the Scottish Highlands, over Europe, eastern Asia, Canada and the U.S., appearing around Hudson Bay around September and further south in about another two months reaching the upper U.S. around December.
A few have been recorded nesting as far south as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Normally they do not winter further south than Illinois or New York, but occasionally they wander as far as Kansas and Virginia.
They are content playing and singing during snow storms when the temperature is thirty degrees below zero.
Snow buntings are ground feeders of various seeds, buds, insect larvae and small shell fish. Flocks forage for weed shoots penetrating snow covered fields.
They are forced south not by the severe cold and deep snow cover so much as the deprivation of its food source, moving northward again as early as February.
Snow buntings build warm bulky nests of stems, grass and moss lined with feathers and fur hair in rock crevices on barren hillsides, in cavities in sand banks and in nest boxes.
Females lay three to seven dull white speckled eggs with a faint blue-green tint which hatch after about 2 weeks incubation and young fly in about another 2 weeks.
The Snow Bunting Birdhouse has a 5″ by 5″ floor, 8″ inside floor to ceiling, 1 3/4″ diameter entrance hole located 6″ below the roof and ventilation openings.
Make with cedar, pine or other softwood rough-cut on both sides.
Assemble with corrosion resistant screws fit to pre-drilled countersunk pilot holes.
Secure a hinged roof with shutter hooks for easy access.
Place a few wood chips, not saw dust, on the floor.
Mount this nest box on a post or the wall of a house or shed.
Remove the nest and clean the box after the season is past.
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