Bird
Snowy Owl
Bubo scandiacus
A winter visitor to West Virginia, found in 19 of 55 counties and 4 habitats.
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 19 of 55 counties
- Habitats
- 4

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 19 of 55 counties
- Habitats
- 4
- Habitat models
- Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in West Virginia 4
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Treeless grassy or shrubby summits and ridges in the high mountains.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Steep, sun-baked slopes of loose shale with sparse oaks and Virginia pine and their own endemic wildflowers. Linked only where the source names shale barrens; calcareous shale stays with the limestone glades.
Other habitats in its models (20)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in West Virginia.
- Developed, Low Intensity Winter.
- Developed, Medium Intensity Winter.
- Developed, High Intensity Winter.
- Nashville Basin Limestone Glade Winter.
- Central Interior Highlands Calcareous Glade and Barrens Winter.
- Central Mixedgrass Prairie Winter.
- North-Central Interior Sand and Gravel Tallgrass Prairie Winter.
- Southeastern Great Plains Tallgrass Prairie Winter.
- Recently Logged Areas Winter.
- Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Winter.
- Recently Burned Winter.
- Recently Burned Forest Winter.
- Recently Burned Grassland Winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Forbland Winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland and Forbland Winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Winter.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Winter.
Seasons in West Virginia
- Winter: does not nest here, in 19 of 55 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 342
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in West Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
- Nodding OnionAllium cernuum
- Wavy HairgrassAvenella flexuosa
- Common HackberryCeltis occidentalis
- Poverty OatgrassDanthonia spicata
- Eastern Bottlebrush-grassElymus hystrix
- White AshFraxinus americana
- Smooth Solomon's-sealPolygonatum biflorum
- Northern Red OakQuercus rubra
- Little BluestemSchizachyrium scoparium
- Virginia SpiderwortTradescantia virginiana
- Box-elderAcer negundo
- Eastern Red MapleAcer rubrum var. rubrum
- Carolina Red MapleAcer rubrum var. trilobum
- Silver MapleAcer saccharinum
- Sugar MapleAcer saccharum
- Sugar MapleAcer saccharum var. saccharum
- Yellow BuckeyeAesculus flava
- White SnakerootAgeratina altissima
- Woodland AgrimonyAgrimonia rostellata
- Shale Barren Nodding OnionAllium oxyphilum
- Hazel AlderAlnus serrulata
- New York FernAmauropelta noveboracensis
- American Hog-peanutAmphicarpaea bracteata
Wildlife 191
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in West Virginia. Not sighting records.
- Spotted SandpiperActitis macularius
- Turkey VultureCathartes aura
- Wild TurkeyMeleagris gallopavo
- Yellow-breasted ChatIcteria virens
- Yellow-rumped WarblerDendroica coronata
- Alder FlycatcherEmpidonax alnorum
- American CrowCorvus brachyrhynchos
- American KestrelFalco sparverius
- American Tree SparrowSpizella arborea
- Blue JayCyanocitta cristata
- Blue-gray GnatcatcherPolioptila caerulea
- Brown ThrasherToxostoma rufum
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- Cedar WaxwingBombycilla cedrorum
- Chestnut-sided WarblerDendroica pensylvanica
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Eastern TowheePipilo erythrophthalmus
- Gray CatbirdDumetella carolinensis
- Great Crested FlycatcherMyiarchus crinitus
- Horned LarkEremophila alpestris
- Indigo BuntingPasserina cyanea
- Least FlycatcherEmpidonax minimus
- Loggerhead ShrikeLanius ludovicianus
- Mourning DoveZenaida macroura
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Snowy Owl
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)












































