The Snow Bunting is one of the first birds to return to their Arctic breeding grounds, with malesarriving in early April. This species occurs throughout the circumpolar arctic and, as a cavitynester,will use human-made nest sites (e.g. barrels, buildings, pipelines) as readily as naturalones (rock cavities, under boulders, cliff faces; Lyon and Montgomerie 1995). Snow Buntingsconsume a wide variety of both plant (e.g. seeds, plant buds) and animal prey (invertebrates).Their wintering range is centered in the northern continental US and southern Canada although itextends north into the low arctic in some places (Lyon and Montgomerie 1995). Current globalpopulation estimate is 40 million (Rich et al. 2004).