Snow bunting
| Snow bunting | |
|---|---|
| Male in breeding plumage, Thule, Greenland | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Calcariidae |
| Genus: | Plectrophenax |
| Species: | P. nivalis |
| Binomial name | |
| Plectrophenax nivalis | |
Breeding Migration Year-round Nonbreeding | |
| Synonyms | |
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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.