Ross's Gull
Rhodostethia rosea
Long-winged, wedge-tailed, delicate seabird of far northern climates, nesting in open wet tundra and wintering around sea ice, occasionally moving into coastal areas. Breeding adult astonishingly beautiful: pearly gray above, rose-pink below, with coral-red legs, thin black collar, and tiny black bill. Nonbreeding adult has a tiny black dot near the ear and loses the black collar and much or all of the pink coloration. First-winter birds have blackish “M” pattern in upperwing and black tip on wedge-shaped tail. Flight graceful and buoyant.
Identification
This small bird is similar in size and some plumage characteristics to the little gull. It is slightly larger and longer winged than the little gull species, and has more-pointed wings and a wedge-shaped tail. Its legs are red. Summer adults are pale grey above and white below, with a pink flush to the breast, and a neat black neck ring. In winter, the breast tints and neck collar are lost and a small dark crescent develops behind the eye.<p>Young birds resemble winter adults, but have a dark "W" pattern on the wings in flight, like young little gulls. The juveniles take two years to attain full adult plumage.<p>Ross's gull measurements:
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Rhodostethia rosea
- Authority
- (MacGillivray, W, 1824)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Laridae
- Genus
- Rhodostethia
Range and habitat
Ross's gull breeds in the high Arctic of northernmost North America, and northeast Siberia. It migrates only short distances south in autumn, most of the population wintering in northern latitudes at the edge of the pack ice in the northern Bering Sea and in the Sea of Okhotsk, although some birds reach more temperate areas, such as north west Europe; in February 2016 they were sighted in Cornwall and Ireland according to the BTOs 'BirdTrack', in December 2021 two were seen in Belgium, one in Nieuwpoort and one in Zeebrugge. In North America, a Ross's gull has been spotted as far south as Salton Sea in California, although sightings this far south are extremely rare. The summer breeding grounds are tundra with sedges, grass tussocks, dwarf willows, bushes, lichens and pools.
- Breeding range
- PAL, NA : w, e Greenland (rare); Arctic ne Siberia, locally from Taimyr Pen. to Kolyma River; Arctic ne Canada and formerly Churchill, Manitoba (wc Hudson Bay, ec Canada)
- Non-breeding range
- Arctic Ocean, in Beaufort (n of Alaska) and Labrador seas (at least)
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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