The year of the Bird Trap, 1565, also produced The Hunters in the Snow, the most famous of the group, part of a series showing the months or seasons.

It has been noted that the three in the nearest trees are, because closer to the front of the picture space, at least as large in absolute terms as the humans on the river.

[10] Many art historians have tried to draw a moral or allegorical meaning from the painting, without any suggestion achieving wide acceptance.

[12] Since 2000 the discussion has continued and possibly this painting employs motifs from some earlier lost original by Bruegel's younger son Jan Brueghel the Elder, along the lines of The Hunters in the Snow.

[14] Each known copy seems to emphasize subtle details, whether it is in the game of curling, the arrangement of the bird trap, the hole in the ice, or various moralistic and religious themes.

The copies mostly show a slightly extended scene compared to the original, which is most obvious at the bottom left corner.

The painting was in a private collection in Brussels until bequeathed to the Oldmasters Museum in 1973 by Mrs Delporte-Livrauw and Dr Franz Delporte.