More on the Dyed Snowy...

From Project SnowStorm

No, We’re Not Dyeing Owls Red Scott Weidensaul January 28, 2025

On Jan. 24, birder and photographer James Robinson Bill Diller photographed a snowy owl in Huron County, Michigan, that appears to have been liberally coated with some sort of orangish-red paint or dye. After the photos appeared on social media they set off a bit of a firestorm, initially people accusing Robinson of faking them with AI or Photoshop. Others have since seen and photographed the owl.

Lest anyone be confused, Project SNOWstorm does not use color-marking to track snowy owls, nor do we have anything to do with this unfortunate Michigan bird.

The only exceptions have been when our Canadian colleagues have tagged owls being moved from airfields like Montreal-Trudeau Airport, when the owl might be given a small spot of dye at the bend of the wing or the back of the head so it can be re-identified at a distance if it returns to the airfield.

In the 1960s, before modern transmitter technology was developed (and before the full impact of color-marking on the social behavior of birds was understood), early researchers in Wisconsin did use spray paint to mark snowy owls in order to understand winter movements. The science has moved on greatly since then, and the transmitters we use provide vastly more information, across seasons and over many years, than color-marking ever could.

We have been in touch with the U.S. Bird Banding Lab regarding the Michigan owl, and they confirmed that no U.S. banders are currently authorized to color-mark snowy owls in any fashion. The BBL also confirmed with the USDA’s Wildlife Services division that that agency is not color-marking snowy owls trapped and relocated from U.S. airports. At last report the BBL was reaching out to their colleagues at the Canadian Banding Office to see if they can shed any light on this disturbing situation.

No legitimate modern researcher, even with color-marking authorization, would essentially paint an entire bird the way this owl appears to have been done. It’s not science, it’s vandalism, and we’re as upset about it as anyone.

(The date and identity of the original photographer have been corrected, with apologies.)

Jan. 31 update: During our weekly SNOWstorm team call today, Norman Smith, who has been banding snowy owls at Logan Airport since 1981, recalled a snowy that was roosting under a bridge that was being spray-painted and was hit with gray primer, creating a pattern similar to this. He also pointed out that some metal primers are red. Not conclusive, but definitely a possibility.

From the page comments:

It’s certainly not natural — the color seems to have been applied in a symmetrical way — on parts of the outermost flight feathers on both wings, but not on the inner flight feathers called the secondaries, and you can easily see that the color left white “shadows” where the feather above prevented parts of the feathers below from being touched. There’s been speculation that it was something like fire retardant dropped by a plane, which might make sense if the owl were in L.A., but not in northern Michigan in the middle of winter. It’s easily one of the most bizarre things we’ve seen.

If it’s dye, chances are the only thing that will help is fading with time, and natural molting that will replace feathers. Snowy owls undergo what’s known as a prebasic molt on the breeding grounds in which they replace most or all of their body feathers and many of their wing coverts, but it takes several years for owls (even small ones like northern saw-whets) to replace all of their wing feathers. Obviously, there is a concern here that this bird has lost its winter camouflage, and I have to assume the coloration will have an effect on whether it can attract a mate. If I were a snowy owl, that’s probably not what I’d be looking for in a partner.

It’s hard to say, but the extent of the coloration just strikes me as unlikely to have been accidental. Of course, I’d prefer not to think that someone did this on purpose.

Well, snowy owls only nest on the ground on the Arctic and subarctic tundra, so no trees. I’m persuaded by my colleague Norman Smith’s idea that it was roosting under a bridge that was being spray-painted with metal primer, especially because there are photos of this owl perching on what appears to be a bridge superstructure.

This appears to be a first-winter snowy, based on the lack of any sign of recent molt in the flight feathers, so it would have been up on the tundra as a fledgling during the summer wildfire season on Canada. (Snowy owls also avoid forested areas, because they are not woodland owls – they prefer open terrain.)

My spouse is a commercial airline pilot. He confirmed that Type I deicing fluid is red-orange. I’m not saying that is what this is, but it is a possibility.