The Snow Owl is America's largest owl species, weighing about 4 pounds. Snow owls are rare, irregular winter visitors to the USA. They migrate south from the Arctic tundra into the northern half of the country—such as New England, the Great Lakes, and the Pacific Northwest—typically appearing between November and March. Why a bird? 

Christian Ulbricht`s father, Otto, was so happy on the birth of his first son that he created a nutcracker for the occasion. This nutcracker, for the first time, was in the shape of a bird, and he gave it as a gift to his wife called Welly. In 1997 the successful story for the special event piece began with the "woodpecker" which since then has been followed by a new model each year.