The biggest challenge to wintering in the North is the lack of food. Only eleven species of birds are capable of surviving the long, cold arctic winter: gyrfalcons, northern ravens, snowy owls, common redpolls, willow and rock ptarmigans, Ross' gulls, ivory gulls, thick-billed murres, dovekies, and black guillemots. And even these hardy species move slightly south in the depths of winter, probably to avoid the 24-hour darkness of the northernmost polar regions.

While marine birds move to polynyas, areas of the Arctic Ocean where the water does not freeze, the few terrestrial birds that winter in the Arctic have had to adapt their feeding strategies to make use of what is available. Lemmings and voles, the favourite prey of snowy owls and ravens, are hard to find in winter, as they hide in burrows under the snow. These predators are therefore forced to turn to scavenging to survive, eating from carcasses left by polar bears and wolves. During the time when seals come onto the ice to give birth, owls and falcons also scavenge the placentas left when the pups are born. Ravens cache food, hiding items and then returning to eat them later – if they have not been stolen by another raven!

As for the plant eaters, ptarmigans feed mainly on dwarf willow and birch, scraping through the shallow snow in windswept areas to find food. The common redpoll, a seed-eating bird, searches for food in areas of exposed ground or in lemming burrows under the snow. This bird's tiny size means that it loses heat very quickly. Therefore, in order to minimize exposure to the cold, it picks up seeds quickly and stores them in a special sac inside its throat, then moves to a more sheltered area such as a burrow to digest its meal in relative comfort.