Globe âș Birds âș Snow bunting
Snow bunting migration Plectrophenax nivalis
ⶠFollow the snow bunting across the big globe
Press ⶠto play the year. Line: a simplified typical route, joining the main cluster of GBIF records in each month (adjusted for observer effort).
| Scientific name | Plectrophenax nivalis |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 35 cm |
| IUCN status | Least concern |
| Records mapped | 801,867 (GBIF) |
| GPS / geolocator tracks | none with an open licence yet |
Facts from Wikidata Q26416 (CC0).
When does the snow bunting arrive in the UK?
A winter visitor in the records: numbers build from late September and stay high until about early March.
Bars: this speciesâ share of all UK bird records in GBIF (CC0/CC BY), by month, scaled to the peak month. Based on 17,140 UK records. Weekly counts from the GBIF occurrence search API (country=GB). Dates are read from records, not from a survey, so treat them as a guide.
When do they arrive in and leave the UK? â
Migration in the data
801,867 GBIF records (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licences only) are mapped here, in 1.41° grid cells, month by month.
In Europe and Africa, the centre of the records (adjusted for observer effort) is furthest north in June (about 73°N) and furthest south in November (about 60°N).
Month by month: centre of records in Europe and Africa
| Month | Centre (latitude) | South of the Equator |
|---|---|---|
| January | 61°N | 0% |
| February | 61°N | 0% |
| March | 64°N | 0% |
| April | 68°N | 0% |
| May | 71°N | 0% |
| June | 73°N | 0% |
| July | 72°N | 0% |
| August | 72°N | 0% |
| September | 71°N | 0% |
| October | 64°N | 0% |
| November | 60°N | 0% |
| December | 60°N | 0% |
Tracked birds
No openly licensed (CC0 / CC BY) tracking data package for this species was found in the Movebank Data Repository yet, so only records are shown.
About the snow bunting
The snow bunting 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. âŠ
From the Wikipedia article âSnow buntingâ (revision 1375980526), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
GBIF occurrence records, licence CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only, observations only (no specimens), filtered with: taxonKey=2491719&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&hasGeospatialIssue=false&basisOfRecord=HUMAN_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=MACHINE_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=OBSERVATION. Monthly queries: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec. GBIF.org (23 October 2026) occurrence data accessed via the GBIF API; a GBIF download DOI is still to be added. Contributing datasets.