Ivory Gull

Facts about the Ivory Gull it is a small marine bird that comes from the genus Pagophila of the Laridae family. The binomial name of the Ivory Gull is Pagophila Eburnea, and it is the only available variety in the Pagophila genus. The Ivory Gull usually rears in the elevated Arctic Ocean and has a circulation through the northernmost parts of North America, Greenland, and Eurasia. In North America, the Ivory Gull breeds only in the Arctic of Canada. The Seymour Island in Nunavut is abode to the largest identified breeding settlement, whereas Devon, Ellesmere, north Baffin Islands, and Cornwallis are other known sites of breeding settlements.

Features

The Ivory Gull is a small seabird, with the body length that ranges from 15.7 inches to 16.9 inches (40 cm to 43 cm), with the wings spanning from 42.5 inches to 47.2 inches (108 cm to 120 cm) and a body mass ranging from 448 grams to 687 grams (15.8 Oz to 24.2 Oz).

An adult Ivory Gull has a pure white color body with black color eyes. The Ivory Gull's legs and feet are black in color, and it has a smaller bill with a blue colored base. During breeding season, the Ivory Gull will change to grayish green, with a red or yellow tip.

During the winter season, The Ivory Gull lives close to Polynyas, or a huge area of open water, bordered by sea ice. Marine birds from North America, together with some birds from Europe and Greenland, winter down the 2000 km of ice border, stretching from the Labrador Sea to Davis Strait that is surrounded by the southwestern parts of Greenland, and Labrador. Wintering Ivory Gulls are frequently seen on the eastern coastlines of Labrador and Newfoundland and they occasionally emerge in the interior of Labrador and on the north coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Usually, an Ivory Gull migrates only small distances south during autumn, even though some birds arrive at more temperate regions.

The Ivory Gull also winters from October up to June in the Chukchi Seas and in the Bering Sea. The Ivory Gull is most common all through the Polynyas and pack ice of the Bering Sea. The Ivory Gull is also a vagabond, moving throughout the northeastern parts of the United States and coastal Canada.

Juvenile birds of the Ivory Gull are inclined to roam further from the Arctic Ocean than adults. The Ivory Gull attain the complete adult plumage after two years of their birth.

During the first winter plumage, the juvenile Ivory Gull will have a white color body, with a dark blackish tan face. Their back is covered in blackish brown marks, with a dark bill. During the primary summer plumage, the Ivory Gull will have a white color body, with one or two spots, and their face will have less blackish marks.

Diet

The Ivory Gull mostly feeds on crustaceans and fish, eggs, rodents, and small chicks. However, the Ivory Gull is an opportunistic scavenger, as well, and it is frequently found on porpoise corpses or seal. The Ivory Gull has been recognized to follow polar bears and other big predators to feed on the leftovers of their kills.

Breeding

The Ivory Gull usually breeds on cliffs and Arctic coasts, constructing its nests on the ground, lined with lichens, moss, or seaweed. The female Ivory Gull is capable of laying one to three olive eggs in a single clutch.

The maximum life span of the Ivory Gull is 20 years.