Harfang of snows

The owl harfang ( Bubo scandiacus ) is large a Chouette of the family of the Strigidé S. It is also called harfang of snows or ookpik by the Inuit S.

This large white bird with the yellow eyes is very recognizable. The males are of a pure white whereas the females and the young people are slightly stained or barred the brown one. Their plumage bleaches with the age, the males then being able to become of an immaculate white. The males are smaller than the females. Their scale is from 170 to 177 cm for the adult females and from 160 to 170 cm for the adult males.

The harfang is a very large bird, being able to reach up to 70 cm length. The female is in general taller than the male. Its eyes are very large proportionally with its size: indeed, they have approximately the same size as those of a Homme. They of a yellow color and are laid out forwards. They are more fixed, which obliges the harfang to often have to turn its broad head flattened to be able to look around him (it can turn it of an angle of 270°).

The natural environment of the harfang is the Far North: Arctic Tundra , left most septentrional the Quebec, etc During the years of food shortage, the harfang does not reproduce and can settle more in the south (until the north of the the United States). This phenomenon, whose origins remain still badly included/understood, reproduces all the 4 or approximately 5 years. It seems to be related to the variations of the abundance of the populations of small mammals, in particular of the Lemming, its independent source of food. However it also nourishes Lièvre S, of Poisson S and Oiseau X: its piercing sight of night like day made of him an excellent hunter, but contrary with the majority of the other owls and owls, the harfang drives out day rather.

The harfang reproduces about February-March. The female lays approximately an egg every two days. It lays between 3 and 14 eggs, but the average between 5 and 9 eggs by is rather brooded. The incubation starts immediately, so that in the nest can be oisillons of a very different age and a size. Incubation lasts approximately 33 to 37 days and the eggs hatch approximately 48 hours later. During all this period, the role of the male is to protect the nest and to bring food to the female which nourishes them let us oisillons. The young people start to fly after 50 days and 10 days later, they are able to only capture their preys. It is necessary for each small 5 meals per day to pass from 45 grams to 1,4 kg. Last nine small consumes in one month until 1 300 small rodents, of the Lemming S: as much as each relative in one year. In the food chain of the tundra, the owl harfang occupies with the fox the highest place: that of the predator. However, in this system living very simplified, these specialized carnivores are also very vulnerable; very effective when the lemmings are abundant, they are dedicated to the famine or the exile when this game rarefies which constitutes the essence of their menu. If the father harfang disappears for the period of growth from the young people, never the mother will not be able to only feed them. The owl harfang unchains the lightnings of the Labbe pomarin, a predatory bird of sea which, fearing for its small, does not support its presence. Expert flies about it, the owl carries out a barrel to present its sharp greenhouses to him. With the second load, it starts a loop, leaping of the ground like a devil of its box.

What strikes in the night raptors, it is initially their quiet flight, due to very soft silks whose the Barbule S are furnished with their feathers. This adaptation enables them to take their preys. Moreover, their hearing is extremely developed.

The longevity of a harfang is of approximately 9 years in natural environment and can go up to 32 years in captivity.

The harfang of snows is the official avian emblem of the Quebec (Canada).

Taxonomy

This was classified a long time under the name of Nyctea scandiaca (Linnaeus, 1758) before being recently reclassified in the Bubo . Classically, this species was regarded as the only representative of a particular kind Nyctea ( Nyctea scandiaca ) but the recent genetic analyzes show that it is very close to the other owls of the kind Bubo .

See too

Taxonomic references

External bonds

owl harfang

http://ecoroute.uqcn.qc.ca/envir/faune/harfang.htm
http://www.borealie.org/page.php/fr/1/185.html
the harfang of snows
Owl harfang in Fauna and flora of the country
Government of Quebec Emblems of Quebec - Harfang of snows

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