Snow bunting
Snow bunting | |
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Male in breeding plumage, Thule, Greenland | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Calcariidae |
Genus: | Plectrophenax |
Species: | P. nivalis
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Binomial name | |
Plectrophenax nivalis | |
Breeding Migration Year-round Nonbreeding
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Synonyms | |
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The snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) is a passerine bird in the family Calcariidae. It is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms in central Scotland and the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska-Yukon border, as well as the Cape Breton Highlands. The snow bunting is the most northerly recorded passerine in the world.[2]
Taxonomy
The snow bunting was
The snow bunting was formerly classified in the family
Four subspecies are recognised, which differ slightly in the plumage pattern of breeding males:[5][8]
- P. n. nivalis (Linnaeus, 1758) – Arctic Europe, Arctic North America. Head white, rump mostly black with a small area of white.
- P. n. insulae Salomonsen, 1931 – Iceland, Faroe Islands, Scotland. Head white with a blackish collar, rump black.
- P. n. vlasowae Portenko, 1937 – Arctic Asia. Head white, rump mostly white.
- P. n. townsendi Ridgway, 1887 – Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka, coastal far eastern Siberia. As vlasowae, but slightly larger.
It is very closely related to the
The species also mated with a Lapland Longspur creating a hybrid. The first photographs of this hybrid were taken in April 2011, during its spring migration.[13]
Description
The snow bunting is a
This species is often confused with McKay's bunting (Plectrophenax hyperboreus) due to the similar colouration of their plumage. Even more, the challenge of identification becomes harder when these two species hybridize at the boundaries of their territories.[7] Another similar species is the horned lark, although it has a larger black tail and it has a smaller white patch on the wings.[15]
Vocalizations
The call is a distinctive rippling whistle, per,r,r,rit and the typical Plectrophenax warble hudidi feet feet feew hudidi.
Snow buntings use vocalizations to communicate among each other and males will have a song to attract the female.[16] The communication calls are done by both the male and the female and they tend to be emitted in flight or in the ground, while the males will often emit the song from a perching position or in a flight display. The males will start singing as soon as they will reach the breeding grounds, and will stop once they find a mate.[7] Studies have shown that the quality and the rate at which a song is emitted affect the reproductive success of a male. The rate of a song measured by the number of strophes per minute is limited by the foraging needs of the male; therefore, a male that is able to sing more frequently shows that he is more successful and effective in his foraging behavior. The song becomes an indicator of the parental care qualities of the male, since having an effective foraging behavior will provide a better probability of survival of the nestlings. Females will then choose their mates based on their song rate.[17] Within snow buntings, vocalizations in males are unique to each individual, although there is certain syllable sharing between one another. The uniqueness of each song reveals a capacity of recognition between individuals and has an effect in the individual fitness and reproductive success.[16] The songs have duration of 2 seconds and have a frequency of 2 to 6 kHz. Each song is composed of similar and dissimilar figures that create different motifs that will alternate and repeat, resulting in a unique pattern for every male individual.[17]
Distribution and habitat
The snow bunting lives in very high latitudes in the
During the breeding period, the snow bunting looks for rocky habitats in the
Migration
The snow buntings migrate to the Arctic to breed and they are the first migrant species that arrives in these territories. The males will arrive first at the beginning of April, when the temperature could reach −30 degrees Celsius. This early migration could be explained by the fact that this species is highly territorial and the quality of the nesting area is crucial to their reproductive success. Females will arrive four to six weeks later, when the snow starts to melt. They tend to migrate in small flocks and have an undulating flight at a moderate height.[7]
The birds overwinter in northern temperate zones in open fields and forms moving flocks that can number into the hundreds.[8][7] They will leave the Arctic at the middle and end of September, although some will start the migration at the beginning of November. The female leaves first and tends to winter in more southern territories than the male, while the juveniles will leave the Arctic even later than the adults.[7] Once the snow bunting migrates south, they are able to loose the weight they had gained for breeding.
The migration is nocturnal and the birds are able to detect the
Physiological adaptations
Right before the breeding season, snow buntings undergo significant physiological changes to prepare for their journey to higher Arctic regions. One of the most obvious changes is an increase in body weight. They undergo the process of
Behaviour
Food and feeding
From the fall to the spring the snow bunting eats a variety of weeds such as
Breeding
Snow buntings have a monogamous behaviour in which the males have a positive impact in the reproductive success of the female, although they are not essential to the survival of the nestling.[26] The male will follow the female during her fertile period to make sure that she will not mate with any other male.[26] The nest sites provide safety but bring other challenges to snow buntings, since in rock cracks and fissures the microclimate could be harsh, the incubation time might be longer for this species and there is a risk that the lower temperatures kill the embryo. To overcome this challenge, the male will bring food to the female during the incubation time, in this way she will be able to constantly control the temperatures of the nest microclimate improving the hatching success and reducing the incubation time.[7]
This passerine lays eggs as soon as the ambient temperature is above 0 degrees Celsius[27] The eggs are blue-green, spotted brown, and hatch in 12–13 days, and the young are already ready to fly after a further 12–14 days.[14]
Courtship behaviour
The courtship behaviour of snow buntings varies in different parts of the world. In Greenland, the male will have a threat display to ensure his territory. This display will consist of very loud calls, the male will lower its head down and will turn completely to face the newcomer. The males will also have a ceremonial flight to attract the female, in which they will reach a height of 30 to 50 feet, then they will glide, they will sing the song very loudly and will then keep on singing from a perching position.[19]
Effects of climate change on snow bunting populations
Several indices suggest that climate change could potentially have an important impact on the snow bunting's populations. The Arctic oscillation index (AO) is a regional climate index that helps to predict ecological processes. In the Arctic, when the AO index is in a positive phase, there are higher winter temperatures and precipitation, followed by an earlier and warmer spring, and the summer is cloudy and humid with lower temperatures. Usually the AO index tends to oscillate from a positive to a negative phase, but during the last past 40 years, the AO index has remained in the positive phase. Studies have shown that warmer springs trigger an early breeding behavior in the snow buntings that mismatches the peak of their food sources, leading to a lower success rate of the hatchlings. Even more, the higher temperatures will bring to the Arctic other species that will compete with the snow bunting. It is also thought that higher temperatures might allow greater survival of second broods in the snow bunting species.[27]
Gallery
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Illustration of adult & juvenile snow buntings by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1905.
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Adult breeding male P. n. insulae, Iceland
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Adult winter male, England
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Adult breeding male, Scotland
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P. n. nivalis, in spring
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Adult in winter plumage, Germany
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ID composite
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Eggs of snow buntingMHNT
References
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ PMID 9319809.
- ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 176.
- .
- ^ Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2022). "Finches, euphonias, longspurs, Thrush-tanager". IOC World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ . Retrieved 26 November 2022.
- ^ ISBN 1-873403-19-4.
- ISBN 0-679-45122-6
- .
- ^ Withrow, J.J. (2020). "Plumage variation in Bering Sea Plectrophenax buntings and the specific status of McKay's bunting" (PDF). Western Field Ornithologists. 51 (3): 174–189.
- American Ornithologists' Union: Checklist of North American Birds.
- JSTOR 41758941.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-850188-6.
- ^ "All About Birds". The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ S2CID 49233977.
- ^ doi:10.1139/z02-033.
- .
- ^ a b Nethersole-Thompson, Desmond (1993). The Snow Bunting. Peregrine Books.
- .
- .
- .
- PMID 9600868.
- S2CID 222327224.
- ISSN 2296-701X.
- ^ S2CID 4195499.
- ^ .
External links
- Snow Bunting Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Snow Bunting - Plectrophenax nivalis - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Stamps[usurped] (with world range map) at bird-stamps.org
- "Snow Bunting media". Internet Bird Collection.
- Snow Bunting photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
- Snow Bunting Images - ARKive
- Interactive range map of Plectrophenax nivalis at IUCN Red List maps
- The Birds of North America Online
- Audubon Guide to North American Birds
- Bird Web: Snow Bunting
- Wild Bird Habitat Store