Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

Larus glaucoides

Gaelic: Faoileag-liath

Photograph ©Terry Fountain
Ardivachar (just south on the edge of the Range there is some flooded land) - MOD Range - South Uist - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
20th January, 2008

Our Iceland Gull Photographs

Iceland Gull 1st winter	Iceland Gull 1st winter	Iceland Gull adult	Iceland Gull 1st winter	Iceland Gull 1st winter	Iceland Gulls 1st winter and an adult bird
Iceland Gull 1st winter flight	Iceland Gull 1st winter flight	Iceland Gull 1st winter flight	Iceland Gull adult flight	Iceland Gull 1st winter flight	Iceland Gull 1st winter with Glaucous Gull 1st winter

 

• Iceland Gull
• Larus glaucoides
• Uncommon winter and passage visitor , scarce in summer
• 70 - 80 birds (usually singular) winter in UK RSPB
• Usually smaller than herring gull. All plumages very pale, no black in wings or tail. Immatures pale-creamy brown with fine barring. Rounded head, large dark eyes. Flight: "short-necked", very pale wings - white tips
• Breeds: Arctic Canada, Greenland (not Iceland)
• Winters: North Atlantic, South to North Europe - UK, East coast USA
• Habitat: Seacoasts, lakes
• Diet: It's an omnivore: Mostly fish, some carrion, eggs & young of other birds
• Similar birds: Glaucous gull (they're usually larger & more frequent

 

The most similar bird to the Iceland Gull is the Glaucous gull. The bills of 1st winter Iceland gulls are almost all dark, whereas those of the Glaucous gulls just have a black tip. As the winter progresses toward spring the paler, pinkish base of the bill becomes more obvious. The bill of the glaucous gull in the picture on the right looks much larger, longer and heavier and blunter than the one on the bird above.

The Iceland gull has a rounded head with a soft and kind expression, Glaucous gulls look fierce.

Terry Fountain mentioned that the wings of an Iceland Gull project more beyond the tail, also at rest.

The Iceland gull is slightly smaller than a Herring Gull, the Glaucous gull is slightly smaller than a Great Black-backed Gull.

In the Western Isles we usually get about twenty Iceland Gull records in winter, and just one or two in summer.

The BTO migration Atlas estimates 100 - 200 birds wintering in the UK.

 

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

Other local bird photographs

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