Ivory Gull

Pagophila eburneaOrder: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Skuas, Gulls, Terns, Skimmers (Laridae)

Codes: Common Name: IVGU Scientific Name: PAGEBU ITIS Taxonomic No.: 176851

Birdman Mel's Backyard Tips

Overview

Ivory Gull: A pure white gull whose entire life is restricted to the edge of the floating pack ice. Legs dark, bill dusky with yellow tip. It eats fish, insects, lemmings and crustaceans, and is also an active scavenger. Bouyant, graceful flight. Often flies with feet trailing and dangling below.

Range and Habitat

Ivory Gull: Nearly always associated with drifting pack ice in the very northern reaches of the arctic. Circumpolar and found in Siberia, Canada, Greenland, and other artic land masses.

Topo Map: Gull-like Body

Voice Text

"keear"

Interesting Facts

The Ivory Gull casts up pellets of indigestible matter from its food, such as bones and fur. Pellet-casting is most frequent where lemmings are abundant and are the major prey.

It has been known to follow polar bears and other predators to feed on the remains of their kills.

Large nests are eaten by caribou during the winter and early spring.

A group of gulls has many collective nouns, including a "flotilla", "gullery", "screech", "scavenging", and "squabble" of gulls.

Bird Term Glossary

Author

David Lukas

Artist

David Wenzel

Percevia^® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The Percevia field guides, database and search protocol patent pending.

The best bird guide and bird watching search engine to identify birds!

Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Ivory Gull

● Song: "keear"

● Foraging & Feeding: Ivory Gull: Uses a wide variety of hunting techniques for catching invertebrates or small fish. Hovers over open water, plunge dives, swims on the surface, or walks along beaches. Often hunts at night.

● Breeding & nesting: Ivory Gull: Nests in colonies on open ground or on cliff ledges. Both sexes bring a wide variety of materials to form a simple nest in which one to three yellow brown eggs marked with dark olive, brown or black, are laid. Both sexes incubate eggs for 24 to 26 days, chicks fledge at 30 to 35 days old.

● Similar species: None in range

Flight Pattern

Fast graceful ternlike flight.

● Range & Habitat: Ivory Gull: Nearly always associated with drifting pack ice in the very northern reaches of the arctic. Circumpolar and found in Siberia, Canada, Greenland, and other artic land masses.

^BreedingColonial

^PopulationUncommon and local

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight22.4 Ounces

Gull-like Body

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America

Ivory Gull

Birdman Mel's Backyard Tips

Overview

Range and Habitat

Topo Map: Gull-like Body

Voice Text

Interesting Facts

Bird Term Glossary

Author

Artist

Ivory Gull

Flight Pattern