Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull (2nd winter)

Larus hyperboreus

Faoileag-mhor

Photograph © Terry Fountain
St Kilda - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
30th March, 2007

Our glaucous gull photographs:

Glaucous gull 1st winter (November) Heavily patterned	Glaucous gull 1st winter (November) in flight	Glaucous gull 1st winter flight (January)	Glaucous gull 1st winter (March) & herring gull useful size comparison	Glaucous gull 1st winter (March) close-up Good ID photo
Glaucous gull 1st winter (January)	Glaucous gull 2nd winter ( March) feeding pale & smooth bird	Glaucous gull 2nd winter (March) in flight	Glaucous gull 2nd winter (March)	Glaucous Gull with Iceland Gull

 

• Glaucous Gull
• Larus hyperboreus
• Winter Visitor, 200+ UK (winter) RSPB
• Breeds Arctic & Northern Atlantic European coasts: Greenland, Iceland, North Russia, North North America. (nests on ground or cliffs)
• Winters: Mostly North Atlantic & North Pacific oceans, some go as far south as Northern Mexico
• Large gull: bigger, bulkier than herring gull. Pale wingtips (no black in wings & tail)
  Adult pearl-grey above, thick yellow bill. Immatures: very pale-grey, creamy-white or biscuit coloured with pink & black bill.
  More fierce looking than similar (smaller) Iceland gull
• Habitat: Seacoasts, lakes, rubbish tips, reservoirs, fishing ports (with other winter gulls)
• Diet: Omnivorous: mostly animals, also other seabirds ( in flight) scavenges carrion, scraps & is a pirate
• Listen glaucous gull (RSPB site)
• Similar birds: herring gull, Iceland gull

 

Like some of the other gulls, an adult glaucous gull has a bright red spot on the lower part of it's yellow bill. A chicks peck at this spot when it wants to be fed, and this stimulates the parent to regurgitate what it last ate, providing food for the chick.

In the adult glaucous gull, the back and the upper sides of the wings are very pale grey. The underparts and tail are completely white. In summer the bird's head is pure white and in winter it is brown-streaked.

At all ages the legs and feet of the bird are pale pink .

Glaucous gulls are not sexually mature until they are four years old. The immatures often spend the summer in the breeding grounds with the adults, but do not make nests.

Although the immatures of a gull species are distinguishable from one another by age group, identifiying the actual species of immature gulls is a challenge if there is more than one species present.

Immature glaucous gulls are usually a lot paler overall than other species. They always have a bill that is partially black toward the tip, pink at the base and have almost white wing-tips. There are four classes of immature glaucous gull. The wintering birds arrive in Autumn and as the winter progresses their plumage gradually develops towards that of the next year, so a bird arriving in November will look very different when it is ready to move on in the following spring.

• A glaucous gull that is all-over (heavily patterned) mottled light-brown and has a black end-third to it's otherwise pink bill, was born this year, and has come down from the Northern breeding grounds. It is on it's first winter migration. (juvenile, 1st winter, 1st year, This year's)
  
• If the bill is still pink at the base, and then there is about a quarter of it black, with the very tipmost part pale, and the bird is generally blotchy (and less evenly patterned), the bird is probably a glaucous gull that is in it's second winter.
  
• By third winter barring will/should still be there on under/upper tail coverts, also brownish areas on upper-wing, although rest of bird should be as an adult. The bill is pink with just a little black, and a small pale tip.
  
• When the bird has a yellow bill, (sometimes with red spot) with faint black markings toward the tip and the plumage is mottled pale grey above and is almost white below (may still have patches of light brown). It is probably a 4th winter bird (AKA: after 3rd winter, after 3rd year )
  
• The adult glaucous gull is much paler and larger than a herring gull, and has white wing-tips

 

Glaucous gulls live up to 17 years and often return every winter to the same location.

 

 

Special thanks to Terry Fountain for his help.

Terry Fountain's web site:
http://www.hebridesphotographic.com

 

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