Ivory Gull Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  A small, full-bellied gull with a short neck, a small, rounded head, and a fairly small, straight bill relative to other gulls.

  Relative Size

  Larger than a Bonaparte's Gull, smaller than an Iceland Gull.

  between crow and goose

  Measurements

  • Both Sexes
  • • Length: 15.8-16.9 in (40-43 cm)
    • Weight: 15.8-24.2 oz (448-687 g)
    • Wingspan: 42.5-47.2 in (108-120 cm)

  © Brian Sullivan / Macaulay Library

• Color Pattern

  Adults are clean snowy white with dark eyes, black legs, and a pale blue-green bill with a yellow tip. Juveniles and first-winter birds have sooty speckling on the face, dark gray spots on the tips of wing and tail feathers, and a dusky gray bill.

• Behavior

  Forages by hovering and dipping for prey in water, wading in the shallow water, sometimes in small flocks. Usually forages away from other birds except at carcasses. Often gathers near marine mammals, including polar bears.
• Habitat

  Nests on islands, cliffs, mountains (sometimes well inland), beaches, and even on floating ice. Forages around openings and edges in pack ice and drift ice of the High Arctic. Seldom forages in ice-free waters.