Glaucous Gull Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  A stocky gull with a deep chest, a heavy bill, and a large head that makes the eye appear small. This can give the impression of a “snowman” of a bird compared to other large gulls.

  Relative Size

  Larger than a Herring Gull, slightly smaller than a Great Black-backed Gull.

  between crow and goose

  Measurements

  • Both Sexes
  • • Length: 26.8 in (68 cm)
    • Weight: 44.1-95.2 oz (1250-2700 g)
    • Wingspan: 58.7-71.7 in (149-182 cm)

  © Steve Kelling / Macaulay Library

• Color Pattern

  Breeding adults are immaculately white, including translucent white wingtips, except for pale pearly gray back and upper surface of wings. The eye and bill are yellow. Nonbreeding adults usually have some pale brownish or grayish markings on the head, neck, and upper breast. Juveniles are buffy, beige, or whitish, with feather tips of the upperparts showing brownish marks in fresh plumage. The juvenile’s eye is dark and the bill is pinkish with a distinct black tip. Subadult plumages are intermediate between juvenile and adult.

• Behavior

  Eats marine life, birds, and mammals, hunting them in flight, while walking, and while swimming. Seizes prey with the bill and often swallows large live animals whole. Also eats eggs, nestlings, and carrion of all kinds and forages opportunistically at landfills, sewage pipes, fishing vessels, and fish plants, often in flocks. Where other gulls or seabirds gather, Glaucous Gulls tend to be dominant, raising the wings and calling to warn them before attacking.
• Habitat

  Nests on cliffs, coastlines, and islands in the arctic and forages in adjacent waters and in seabird colonies. Migrates mostly along coasts, with some movement to lakes and landfills inland. Winters in sea ice and ocean waters (sometimes far from land), and also frequents shorelines, landfills, and freshwater lakes.