Glaucous gull Larus hyperboreus

Identification Tips:

• Sexes similar
• Large gull
• Bill large with distinct gonydeal angle
• Squarish head
• Wingtips extend slightly beyond tail at rest

Adult alternate:

• Bright yellow bill with red spot at gonys
• Pink legs
• Light eye
• White head, neck, breast, and belly
• Gray back and upperwings
• White tertial crescent
• Primary tips white
• White tail

Adult basic:

• Like adult alternate but blurry brown streaking and spotting on head and nape

Juvenile/First-year:

• Pinkish bill with distinct black tip
• Ghostly white or pale with pale brown barring
• White primaries and secondaries
• White tail with gray to pale brown speckling

Second-year:

• Pale bill with black tip
• Pale head, neck, upper breast, wings, and belly
• Pale gray back

Third year:

• Like adult basic but often lacks adult bill pattern

Similar species:

Glaucous Gulls are quite similar to Iceland Gulls but are larger, have larger bills, flatter heads, and, at rest, shorter wingtips that barely project beyond the end of the tail. Adult Iceland Gulls have dark primary tips in the United States (Greenland and European birds can have white wingtips). First-winter Glaucous Gulls have pink-based, not black, bills. Other gulls lack the white primary tips of the Glaucous Gull.