The Snow Bunting is a bird of the open winter landscape, arriving from the high Arctic to swirl over Michigan's barren fields, beaches, and roadsides in restless flocks that flash brilliant white as they wheel and settle. In winter plumage it is largely white below with warm buff-brown wash on the head, back, and wings, and in flight it shows big white patches that give a passing flock the look of a small snow flurry. Birds forage on the ground for seeds, then erupt together at the slightest disturbance.
Snow Buntings nest on the ground among Arctic rocks, farther north than almost any other songbird, and the breeding male is a crisp black-and-white — a plumage Michiganders rarely see, since the birds molt to their buffier winter look before arriving. They favor the most open, wind-swept habitats: shorelines, stubble fields, and gravel roadsides, often mixing with Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs. A flock of "snowflakes" tumbling over a frozen field is one of the classic sights of a Michigan winter.
Feeds on the seeds of grasses and weeds gathered from open ground, stubble fields, and shorelines in winter, and switches to insects during its brief Arctic breeding season. Flocks forage on bare and snow-swept ground, moving constantly and flushing readily.
In winter, roughly late fall through early spring, in open habitats — stubble fields, beaches, shorelines, and gravel roadsides. They travel in flocks that flash white in flight and often mix with Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs.
That bold breeding plumage is worn on the Arctic nesting grounds. By the time Snow Buntings reach Michigan they have molted to a buffier winter appearance, so the stark black-and-white look is rarely seen here.
A wheeling flock shows large white wing and body patches, like a swirl of snowflakes, before dropping to the ground to feed. This flashing white in open winter country is the giveaway.
The crisp black-and-white breeding plumage belongs to the Arctic. Birds here in winter wear rusty-buff feather tips that wear away by spring, and juveniles are grayer still, so the flocks look warmer brown than the field-guide picture.
A drift, or sometimes a flurry — both earned by the way a flock swirls low over a snowy field and settles like blowing snow. Michigan's winter flocks often mix in Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs.
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