Ross's Gull Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  A small, ternlike gull, with rather narrow, pointed wings, wedge-shaped tail, and tiny bill.

  Relative Size

  Larger than a Red Phalarope, smaller than a Ring-billed Gull; similar in size to Bonaparte’s Gull.

  between robin and crow

  Measurements

  • Both Sexes
  • • Length: 11.4-12.2 in (29-31 cm)
    • Weight: 4.9-8.8 oz (140-250 g)
    • Wingspan: 35.4-39.4 in (90-100 cm)

  © Ian Davies / Macaulay Library

• Color Pattern

  Adult in breeding plumage is pale pearly gray above with a white trailing edge on the wings, rose-pink below, with narrow black collar encircling the head, gray underwings, dark eye, coral-red legs and feet, and black bill. The head and tail are also often tinted pink. Adult in nonbreeding plumage is similar but with little to no pink, no collar, and with a small gray dot behind eye. First-winter immature is similar but shows strong black M-shaped pattern in the upperwings and black tip to tail.

• Behavior

  Forages with buoyant, ternlike flight low over water, dipping to take prey with the bill, sometimes pattering with feet on water. Also forages while swimming or wading, sometimes stirring up sand, mud, or sediment with feet, or running along, ploverlike, to catch small invertebrates.
• Habitat

  Nests in boggy tundra near rivers and ponds. Forages during the nonbreeding months in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, probably along the edge of pack ice. Very rare visitors to temperate North America usually occur with other small gulls along lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and coastlines.