How Many Birds Are Named for Snow?

Snowy Owl; photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash.

The question came to mind one recent winter afternoon as I watched a string of Snow Geese course southward through a pearly sky. Quickly my memory pivoted to the Snow Buntings I used to fondly watch foraging along the Rhode Island shore in wintertime, and all of my (thus far) vain attempts to spot a Snowy Owl.

All three of these species have “snow” in their names... How many more might there be? A Google search yielded no satisfactory answer, and so I searched instead the most comprehensive repository of bird knowledge on the planet: Birds of the World.

Now, it should be noted that birds have many common names, in many languages. Birds of the World provides common names in 43 languages and 35 regional dialects. I searched only English.

A further note: Some birds have nicknames that are different from their official common names. For example, the Dark-eyed Junco is called “snowbird” by many people in North America, because its arrival in backyards heralds the coming of winter (although some populations of juncos have stopped migrating altogether, which is a fascinating story). Birds of the World uses the eBird/Clements taxonomy, which doesn’t include nicknames, so “Dark-eyed Junco” (a.k.a., “snowbird”) would not be returned by a common name search for “snow.”

With these things in mind, I delved into the Birds of the World database, in search of an answer to that simple question...

How many birds have “snow” in their English common names?

My search of Birds of the World yielded a whopping 36 bird species with “snow” or “snowy” in their English common names, representing nine orders (the next classification tier down from “class,” which is shared by all birds, class Aves) across all seven continents. (I’ve provided a handy table at the end of this post for the really curious.)

There are 10,824 species of birds in the world and 41 orders, so snow-dubbed species aren’t exactly common, but 36 was definitely a much higher number than I’d guessed.

Where in the world are the snow-named birds?

Only five of the species named for snow in English are found in North America, where I live (making me feel a little better that I couldn’t guess more than a handful): the aforementioned Snow Goose, Snow Bunting, and Snowy Owl, plus the Snowy Plover and Snowy Egret. (The ranges of the goose, owl, and bunting also span Europe and Asia, and the plover and egret can also be found in South America.)

Another three species are exclusive to Central America––the Snowcap, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, and Snowy Cotinga––and three more are exclusive to South America: the Snowy-crowned Tern, Snow-capped Manakin, and the Snowy-throated Kingbird.

Most of the 36 species reside in Asia, particularly in the Himalayas; 18 are exclusive to the continent, including two mountain-loving groups of birds with multiple species: the snowcocks (a kind of grouse, genus Tetraogallus, five species) and the snowfinches (genus Montifringilla, eight species). Species unique to Asia also include the high-mountain Snow Pigeon and Snow Partridge.

Three species are found only on the island of New Guinea in Oceania and are named for the mountains where they reside––the Moake (or Snow) Mountains: Snow Mountain Quail, Snow Mountain Robin, and Snow Mountain Munia (a kind of finch).

Only two species with snow namesakes can be found in Antarctica­­­­, both seabirds: the Snowy Sheathbill and Snowy Petrel.

One species with snow in its English name lives in Africa, the Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat.

What kinds of birds are named for snow?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of all snow-dubbed species are songbirds (order Passeriformes, the most numerous bird order by far), claiming 19 out of 36 species. The next abundant are the grouse and their relatives (order Galliformes) at seven species, including the five snowcocks, plus a partridge and a quail.

Three shorebirds and their relatives (order Charadriiformes) have “snowy” in their English moniker. The snow birds also include one owl (order Strigiformes), one goose (order Anseriformes), one dove (order Columbiformes), one petrel (order Procellariiformes), and one egret (order Pelecaniformes).

You may imagine my surprise to also learn of two South American hummingbirds (order Apodiformes) named for snow––the Snowcap and the Snowy-bellied Hummingbird––but their names rather lead me to my next point...

Are snow-dubbed birds named for their looks or their likes?

The names of some snow birds are clearly apt from both a habitat and plumage point of view; eBird even refers to the Snowy Petrel as “whiter than the snowy Antarctic peaks and glaciers against which it flies.” Any bird that sports an abundance of white feathers and lives among mountains, ice sheets, or tundra has clearly earned its name in more ways than one.

Other snow-named birds, however, simply seem to have reminded observers of the fluffy white stuff. The most striking example is the Snowcap, the avian embodiment of a snow-peaked mountain in miniature. This little hummingbird lives in the cloud forests of Central America, and the males’ rusty-brown plumage culminates in a stunningly white cap.

Another nine of the 36 names make clear that their species are flecked or frosted with white: either on the tops of their heads (Snowy-crowned Tern, Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat, Snow-capped Manakin), above their eyes (Snowy-browed Nuthatch, Snowy-browed Flycatcher), below their bills (Snowy-throated Kingbird, Snowy-throated Babbler), or elsewhere (Snowy-cheeked Laughingthrush, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird).

Are snow-named birds in trouble?

Birds around the world face a variety of threats, including the consequences of climate change. So, how are the species with “snow” in their names doing?

I was pleased to learn that the conservation status of most of the 36 species is “least concern,” according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. However, there are a few notable exceptions.

The Snowy Owl, Snowy-throated Babbler, and Snowy-cheeked Laughingthrush are all listed as “vulnerable.” The tundra-dwelling owl is likely to see population impacts from a warmer, and warming, Arctic, while the other two species are made vulnerable by their very small geographic ranges; small ranges and low population sizes make populations less resilient to threats.

Both the Snow Mountain Quail and Snowy Plover are listed as “near threatened.” The Snow Mountain Quail has a small range in the mountains of New Guinea. Snowy Plovers, meanwhile, face a range of threats from humans, including habitat degradation and disturbance on their breeding grounds; the species is listed as threatened, endangered, or a species of special concern in seven US states and territories. One of the ways you can help Snowy Plovers (as well as many other shorebirds) is by being a “bird-friendly beachgoer.”

Let it snow

To re(snow)cap, I learned a lot by following my curiously down this snowy trail, and I hope you did too. It turns out a wide variety of birds across the world have been named for snow in English––whether because of their looks, their likes, or both––although it’s true many, many more make snowy places their home.

P.S.: The data

After searching Birds of the World for “snow” in species’ common names, I put together the table below by gleaning information from each species account; I used the premium access granted by my membership in the American Ornithological Society, but the information reported in the table below is viewable on Birds of the World for free. Given that I couldn’t embed a table directly into this post, I inserted an image of one instead and also created an accessible web-based version, with links to eBird for more info about each species.