Snowy owls nest on the tundra in the far north of the world. The tundra is open, treeless land. Snowy owls like wide open spaces such as tundra, grassland and frozen lakes.

A snowy owl nests on the ground, on a small rise or mound. Its nest is a shallow bowl scraped in the ground.

Snowy owls begin laying their eggs in May. A female lays from 3 to 11 eggs at a time. She lays more eggs in years when there is plenty of prey.

Only the female sits on the eggs, for about a month. While she sits, the male brings her food. Baby snowy owls are covered in soft white down when they hatch. The chicks leave the nest on foot, before they can fly.

The snowy owl's favorite food is the lemming, a small mouselike animal. A snowy owl may eat about 1,600 lemmings in a year.

A snowy owl often hunts in the daytime. Its hearing is sharp enough to find animals hiding under snow.

In winter, many snowy owls travel south to Canada and the northern United States. Some winters, many more snowy owls than usual move south out of the Arctic, and these big moves happen every few years. The snowy owls that travel farthest south tend to be the young ones.

In winter, snowy owls live in open places such as prairies, farmland, beaches and airports, and some snowy owls spend weeks or months in winter on the frozen Great Lakes.

Words to know

• tundra: treeless land
• lemming: small mouselike animal
• prey: food animals
• chicks: baby birds