He won a scholarship to Eton and started there in 1938 just before his 14th birthday. He won a scholarship to study classics at New College, Oxford but was called up to serve in the navy in April 1943 and served on several ships including destroyers, frigates, and sloops. After the end of World War II, he spent a year sailing through the Far East and to Australia. In 1946 he returned to Oxford and switched from classics to the study of zoology, earning a D.Phil degree in 1953.[1][2]
Snow is commemorated in the name of the cotinga genus Snowornis and the critically endangered Alagoas antwren (Myrmotherula snowi).
"With his wife, Barbara, Snow made a huge contribution to our understanding of the evolutionary consequences of fruit-eating in birds. In a series of studies of tropical birds, he theorised that the colourful plumage and elaborate mating rituals of male manakins and similar species derived from the fact that copious supplies of fruit enabled the birds to secure adequate daily calories with only a small percentage of their time devoted to feeding. This left them plenty of opportunity to develop elaborate rituals to impress the dowdier females. In England, the Snows spent five years carrying out systematic observations of fruit-eating birds in a small area on the Hertfordshire-Buckinghamshire borders, publishing their results in the seminal Birds and Berries (1988)."[6]
Following Barbara's death in 2007, he published Birds in Our Life, an account of their lives and their close ornithological partnership.
He was elected president of the British Ornithologists' Union and in 1982 was awarded its Godman-Salvin Medal for outstanding contributions to ornithology.
Snow, D.W. (1961). "The Natural History of the Oilbird,Steatornis caripensis, in Trinidad, W.I. Part 1. General Behaviour and Breeding Habits." Zoologica, Scientific Contributions of the New York Zoological Society46(3):27–48
Snow, D.W. (1962). "The Natural History of the Oilbird,Steatornis caripensis, in Trinidad, W.I. Part 2. Population, Breeding Ecology and Food." Zoologica, Scientific Contributions of the New York Zoological Society47(16):199–221
Snow, D.W. (1976). "The relationship between climate and annual cycles in the cotingidae." Ibis118(3):366–401
Snow, D.W. (1976). "The web of adaptation: bird studies in the American tropics." Collins, London ISBN0-00-219735-9
Snow, D.W. (co-editor) (1978–1997). Handbook of the Birds of the Western Palearctic. Edited Stanley Cramp et al.; Oxford University Press) (HBWP) (Widely known as the BWP).
Snow, D.W. ed. (1978). An Atlas of Speciation in African Non-Passerine Birds. British Museum Press. ISBN978-0-565-00787-4.
Snow, B.K. & Snow, D.W. (1979). "The Ochre-bellied Flycatcher and the Evolution of Lek Behavior." Condor81(3)
Snow, D.W. (1982). The Cotingas: Bellbirds, Umbrella birds and their allies. British Museum Press. ISBN0-19-858511-X
Snow, B.K. & Snow, D.W. (1984). "Long-term defence of fruit by Mistle Thrushes Turdus viscivorus." Ibis126(1):39–49
Snow, B.K. & Snow, D.W. (1985). "Display and related behavior of male Pin-tailed Manakins." Wilson Bulletin97(3):
Snow, D.W. (1987) The Blackbird. Shire Natural History. ISBN0-85263-854-X.
Snow, B.K. & Snow, D.W. (1988). Birds and berries: a study of an ecological interaction. Poyser, London. ISBN0-85661-049-6.
Snow, D.W. ed. (1992) Birds, Discovery and Conservation: 100 years of the British Ornithologists' Club (editor), Helm InformationISBN1-873403-15-1
Willis, E.O.; Snow, D.W.; Stotz, D.F. & Parker III, T.A. (1993) Olive-sided Flycatchers in Southeastern Brazil Wilson Bulletin 105(1):
Snow, D.W. et al. (1998).The Birds of the Western Palearctic: 2 Volume Set: Volume 1, Non-Passerines; Volume 2, Passerines [Abridged, Box set] [Hardcover]. Oxford University Press, US; Concise edition. ISBN978-0-19-854099-1.
Snow, D.W. (editor) and Stanley Cramp (author). The Complete Birds of the Western Palearctic. [Hardcover]. Oxford University Press (Sd.). Cdr edition. ISBN978-0-19-268579-7.
Prum, Richard O. & Snow, David W. (2003) Manakins in Perrins, Christopher The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books. pp.434–437. ISBN1-55297-777-3.
Rudder, Joy (2009). The old house and the dream: The story of The Asa Wright Nature Centre. Prospect Press, Maraval, Port of Spain, Trinidad. ISBN976-95082-1-7. Especially pp.47–49.
See the long article in German on Barbara Kathleen Snow on the German Wikipedia at: de:Barbara Kathleen Snow.
Barbara Snow's obituary by David Snow may be downloaded from: .