Plectrophenax nivalis
Silhouette: Lauren McLean · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) is a passerine bird in the family Calcariidae. It is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms in central Scotland and the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska-Yukon border, as well as the Cape Breton Highlands. The snow bunting is the most northerly recorded passerine in the world.
The snow bunting was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the buntings in the genus Emberiza and coined the binomial name Emberiza nivalis. He specified the locality as Lapland. It is now placed in the genus Plectrophenax, described in 1882 by the Norwegian born zoologist Leonhard Stejneger with the snow bunting as the type species. The genus name Plectrophenax is from Ancient Greek plektron, "cock's spur", and phenax "imposter", and the specific nivalis is Latin for "snow-white".
The snow bunting was formerly classified in the family Emberizidae, which included American sparrows... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Svalbard | 🇳🇴 Norway | |
| 2 | Vatnajokull National Park | 🇮🇸 Iceland | |
| 3 | Wrangell-St. Elias National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Wood Buffalo National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 7 | Kluane National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 12 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 14 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 4 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Copenhagen | 🇩🇰 Denmark | |
| 7 | Porto | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 8 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Snow Bunting sighting in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, based on 258 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 82nd most-seen of the 140 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Snow Bunting in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May to November, the lowest months.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Snow Bunting sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 15
Of the 15 parks where we can rate Snow Bunting sightings, Cairngorms National Park ranks 6th at about 10%. The best odds are in Svalbard (Norway, about 80%), Vatnajokull National Park (Iceland, about 60%) and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (United States, about 10%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Snow Bunting that you can see in Cairngorms National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Chaffinch (about 80%), European Robin (about 70%) and Coal Tit (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Snow Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Cairngorms National Park (258 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
