The mass of feather and down protects Snowy Owls to as low as -55 C.

This bird spent an all too-brief period of time last January before moving on.

Canon 5D Mark III with the 500L f4 lens with 1.4 Extender II handheld @ 1/1000, f14, ISO 400, no exposure compensation.
Small crop to level the horizon/wire. The short winter afternoons in January shows up here with a touch of magenta tinting the owl's feathers - no question of "balancing for whites" for me here.

The last few months I've posted my photos @ 1000 pixels wide. With this shot, I'm returning to a standard 800 pixels width.

Cheers,

Mike