Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

It’s Hedwig! Perhaps the most famous snowy owl of all time, Hedwig is Harry Potter’s faithful owl companion in J.K. Rowling’s beloved septology. Rowling wrote Hedwig as a female snowy owl, but when the books were turned into movies, a group of male snowy owl actors were cast. Apparently, the slightly smaller males were easier for a young Daniel Radcliffe to work with. Alas, this sex switch was plainly apparent to bird nerds because female snowy owls have many more dark markings than do the predominantly white males. As a result, some bird-aware fans of the series were hooting (and hollering).

Speaking of hooting, snowy owl “hoots” are low, raspy vocalizations that, to my ear, sound like two muffled yanks on a cord-pull chainsaw. Snowy owls’ other two frequent calls are usually described as barks and whistles, but the “bark” sounds like the quack of a congested mallard and the “whistle” is more of a quiet screech.

I’ve never seen a snowy owl. It’s one of the species high on my bird “wish list,” but I’m not someone who travels to chase particular species. Maybe one day I’ll get lucky, Maybe I won’t. Whatever the case, I’ll admire these supreme and striking birds of prey with captivating eyes and regal outfits. (Even though the large yellow eyes grab our attention, that color accounts for just a fraction of one percent of the total color column, making the yellow band at the column’s base hard to see at the scale reproduced here. I’ve included a detail of the base to “prove” it’s there, but this is why the posters’ printed scale matters!)

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.