SNOWFLAKE (Plectrophenax nivalis) Finch family
Called also: SNOW BUNTING [AOU 1998]; WHITEBIRD; SNOWBIRD; SNOW
LARK
Length -- 7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the
robin.
Male and Female -- Head, neck, and beneath soiled white, with a
few reddish-brown feathers on top of head, and suggesting an
imperfect collar. Above, grayish brown obsoletely streaked with
black, the markings being most conspicuous in a band between
shoulders. Lower tail feathers black; others, white and all
edged with white. Wings brown, white, and gray. Plumage
unusually variable. In summer dress (in arctic regions) the
bird is almost white.
Range -- Circumpolar regions to Kentucky (in winter only).
Migrations -- Midwinter visitor; rarely, if ever, resident south
of arctic regions.
These snowflakes (mentioned collectively, for it is impossible to think of the
bird except in great flocks) are the "true spirits of the snowstorm," says
Thoreau. They are animated beings that ride upon it, and have their life in
it. By comparison with the climate of the arctic regions, no doubt our
hardiest winter weather seems luxuriously mild to them. We associate them only
with those wonderful midwinter days when sky, fields, and woods alike are
white, and a "hard, dull bitterness of cold" drives every other bird and beast
to shelter.
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