Photo by Bryan McGannon.

While downtown D.C. may not seem like a great place for a Snowy Owl to call home, it can stay there if it wants to.

Dan Rauch, a wildlife biologist with the D.C. Department of the Environment’s Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, said he’s not aware of any plans by the National Park Service to disturb the owl. (We’re waiting to hear back from NPS, which has jurisdiction over the McPherson Square park.)

“It is most likely roosting somewhere around McPherson Square during the day and hunting in the evening,” he said by email. “There are hundreds of possible daytime roost sites.”

Rauch also points out that Snowy Owls are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which means a person can’t “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, cause to be shipped, deliver for transportation, transport, cause to be transported, carry, or cause to be carried by any means whatever, receive for shipment, transportation or carriage, or export, at any time, or in any manner, any migratory bird.”

Nicholas Lund of the website Birdist, which is not affiliated with this one, photographed the Snowy Owl perched in a tree while commuters simply walked by last night. He said on Twitter the Owl hasn’t been “refound” today.

Oh, and about that parody Twitter account? There’s one now.

Dan Rouch, DDOE.