Northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis

Identification Tips:

• Length: 18 inches Wingspan: 42 inches
• Sexes similar
• Stocky pelagic bird only coming ashore to breed
• Large shearwater
• Thick yellow bill with tube on top
• Rapid wingbeats
• Glides on stiff wings

Light morph

• White head and underparts
• Gray back, upperwings, rump, and tail
• White "flash" in primaries visible from above
• Mostly white underwings

Gray morph

• Gray head, body, wings, and tail
• Paler underside of flight feathers and upper side of primaries
• Intermediate morph also occurs

Similar species:

Gulls flap their wings more slowly and smoothly and lack the tube on top of the bill. Similarly pelagic shearwaters and petrels are slimmer with more distinct patterning.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.