UPDATED 9:06 A.M.: We initially credited the wrong person for the photo.

The birding community has been buzzing in recent weeks about sightings of snowy owls in Western Washington. They have been sighted in places from Ocean Shores to Renton.

Now we can add Northeast Tacoma to the list.

Linda Sawers, who lives on Hillside Drive Northeast, said there has been one in her neighborhood for several days.

“It’s a beautiful bird. It’s an amazing sight,” said Sawers, who admits she is not a birder.

The owls are circumpolar birds, usually living in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other sites north of Alaska’s Brooks Range, as well as in Scandinavia, Russia, Greenland, Siberia and other Arctic lands, according to a Seattle Times story.

Standing nearly 2 feet tall, the birds have been spreading across the United States, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.