Do we have snow owls in the uk?

Hello! Whereabouts are you in the UK? What you are seeing is a barn owl, Tyto alba. These guys have been soing pretty badly in the past and are creeping back with the help of nest boxes and good land management. It shows you have healthy grassland where the owl can find its prey, and you may well see chicks at some point in which case there must be good nesting opportunities, something which barn owls have been struggling to find since all the barns have been converted. If you're interested in learning more or fancy reporting your owl for a survey, check out www.barnowl.co.uk

Albino owls are rare and usually get killed by others of the species, their parents or because of the shortcomings of being albino. There are a few exceptions but generally this is the rule.

As for SNOWY owls, they are no longer native to Britain. There was a pair nesting on Fetlar in the Shetlands in 1975. Occasionally lost individuals blow in from North America. Personally I think these guys would be pretty miserable not having a territory or being used to eating UK prey but people still get excited at seeing them. They are much bigger than a barn owl, don't land in trees (only land on rocks/on the ground) and need very wide, open spaces. They're also very aggressive! Barn owls have apricot and silver markings on the back, some get very heavily marked, especially females. Snowy owls are white all over, although the female has black flecks on her feathers (it's amusing to a bird nerd to note that Harry Potter's snowy owl on the movies often changes her gender). Snowies have yellow eyes and rarely come out during the night time, preferring daytime and dawn and dusk. Barn owls much prefer the dark and come out when it's light only when they are working hard to find food for their chicks.

You're very lucky to be in the position to see this owl on a daily basis! :)

What you are seeing is a BarnOwl in the dusk they do look white as some are very light in color.

Yes there are occiasional sightings of Snowy Owls but this is mainly in the winter and in Scotland where they sometimes have been blown across the sea from the Tundra regions.

There have been no recent reports of them being sighted or breeding in th U.K.

You may have sighted an escapee from a Wildlife park so keep a good eye out and if you can get a photo it will be worth the while.

Hope this helps

They devour meat. Small birds and mammals, bones and all. At a zoo we used to pass to they fed the owls toddler chickens( they have been already lifeless) and mice. there have been storied approximately large huge owls donning off small dogs like poodles and chihuahuas :) yet i think of they choose rabbits extra advantageous than dogs. basically a case of fallacious identity.

U.K. does have sighting of Snow Owls every once in a while!

-- PA