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Ivory Gull

Status Rare in winter. As one might expect with this arctic species, most of our records come from the winter months. The first was a bird reported from Halifax in 1849 (Jones 1885). One collected at Chezzetcook, Halifax County, on 15 October 1889 and one taken on Cape Breton Island on 26 October 1892 were brought to Halifax to taxidermist T.J. Egan, for mounting (Piers 1894). On 9 December 1905, one was shot near Sable Island (Allen 1916). More recently, single birds were seen at Cape Sable on 31 January 1961 and 15-17 January 1964, and two birds were there late in 1977. Other birds were seen during Christmas Bird Counts at the Sydneys on 28 December 1977 and 1982. In 1979, two were at Sambro, Halifax County, on 7-9 February; two at Glace Bay on 10 February, and another there on 1 March; and one at Digby on 15 April. There was a late sighting at Glace Bay on 5 May 1982, but the most unusual record, because it occurred in early summer, was of a bird in full breeding plumage on Sable Island, well studied by Christel and Norman Bell on 20 June 1969.

Description Length: 41-48 cm. Adults: Entire plumage white. Legs and feet black; bill black, with yellow tip. Immatures: Mainly white; gray suffusion on sides and front of head; sparse, sharply defined dark feather edges and flecks on some wing coverts and the tips of flight feathers; legs and bill black

Range Breeds in the Canadian Arctic islands, northern Greenland and the Eurasian high Arctic; normally winters south to Newfoundland.

Remarks Ivory Gulls are associated with pack ice at all times of year. Their winter occurrence in Nova Scotia probably depends on the southerly extent of winter ice off Newfoundland.