that favors the female may have some correlation with being able to more effectively withstand food shortages such as during brooding as well as the rigors associated with incubating and brooding. Females are sometimes described as “giant” whereas males appear relatively “neat and compact”. However, the sexual dimorphism is relatively less pronounced compared to some other Bubo species. Male snowy owls have been known to measure from in total length, with an average from four large samples of and a maximum length, perhaps in need of verification, of reportedly . In wingspan, males may range from , with a mean of . In females, total length has been known to range from , with a mean of and an unverified maximum length of perhaps (if so they would have the second longest maximum length of any living owl, after only the great grey owl). Female wingspans have reportedly measured from , with a mean of . Despite one study claiming that snowy owl had the highest wing loading (i.e. grams per square cm of wing area) of any of 15 well-known owl species, more extensive sampling demonstratively illustrated that the wing loading of snowy owls is notably lower than Eurasian eagle- and great horned owls. The conspicuously long-winged profile of a flying snowy owl compared to these related species may cause some to compare their flight profile to a bulkier version of an enormous Buteo or a large falcon. Body mass in males can average from , with a median of and a full weight range of from six sources. Body mass in females can average from , with a median of and a full weight range of . Larger than the aforementioned body mass studies, a massive pooled dataset at six wintering sites in North America showed that 995 males averaged at while 1,189 females were found to average . Reported weights of down to for males and of for females are probably in reference to owls in a state of starvation. Such emaciated individuals are known to highly impaired and starvation deaths are probably not infrequent in winters with poor food accesses. Standard measurements have been even more widely reported than length and wingspan. The wing chord of males can vary from , averaging from with a median of . The wing chord of females can vary from , averaging from with a median of . The tail