Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea) - Adult.
A small gull, it is the only species in its genus. It breeds in the high arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. It migrates only short distances south in autumn with most of the population wintering in northern latitudes at the edge of the pack ice. Although rare, some birds reach more temperate areas. Two were spotted in Sambro Harbour, Nova Scotia in January 2009 and this is one of them. This gull is about 2 yrs. old. He is not at all camera shy and came within 2 ft. of where I was standing.
This species is easy to identify. At 43 cm (17 in), it has a different, more pigeon-like shape than the Larus gulls. The adult (shown here) has completely white plumage, lacking the grey back of other gulls. The thick bill is blue with a yellow tip, and the legs are black. Its cry is a harsh eeeer. Young birds have a dusky face and variable amounts of black flecking in the wings and tail. The juveniles take two years to attain full adult plumage.
Ivory Gull breeds on Arctic coasts and cliffs, laying one to three olive eggs in a ground nest lined with moss, lichens, or seaweed. It takes fish and crustaceans, rodents, eggs and small chicks but is also an opportunist scavenger and often found on seal or porpoise corpses. It has been known to follow polar bears and other predators to feed on the remains of their kills. Sources: Field Observations by R.C. Jones and : Wikipedia.org .
Sambro Harbour, Nova Scotia. 27 January 2009.
A small gull, it is the only species in its genus. It breeds in the high arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. It migrates only short distances south in autumn with most of the population wintering in northern latitudes at the edge of the pack ice. Although rare, some birds reach more temperate areas. Two were spotted in Sambro Harbour, Nova Scotia in January 2009 and this is one of them. This gull is about 2 yrs. old. He is not at all camera shy and came within 2 ft. of where I was standing.
This species is easy to identify. At 43 cm (17 in), it has a different, more pigeon-like shape than the Larus gulls. The adult (shown here) has completely white plumage, lacking the grey back of other gulls. The thick bill is blue with a yellow tip, and the legs are black. Its cry is a harsh eeeer. Young birds have a dusky face and variable amounts of black flecking in the wings and tail. The juveniles take two years to attain full adult plumage.
Ivory Gull breeds on Arctic coasts and cliffs, laying one to three olive eggs in a ground nest lined with moss, lichens, or seaweed. It takes fish and crustaceans, rodents, eggs and small chicks but is also an opportunist scavenger and often found on seal or porpoise corpses. It has been known to follow polar bears and other predators to feed on the remains of their kills. Sources: Field Observations by R.C. Jones and : Wikipedia.org .
Sambro Harbour, Nova Scotia. 27 January 2009.
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