The Glaucous Gull is a big, powerful, pale gull of the Arctic that visits the Great Lakes in winter, and it is the largest of the "white-winged" gulls that lack black wingtips. Bulky and broad-winged with a large, heavy pinkish bill tipped in black, and pale, frosty wingtips, it towers over the Ring-billed and even most Herring Gulls in a mixed flock. Immatures are pale creamy or whitish overall, a ghostly presence among the browner young of other gulls, while adults are pale gray-backed with those distinctive whitish wingtips.
A high-Arctic breeder and a formidable predator and scavenger on its northern grounds, the Glaucous Gull comes south to winter, reaching Michigan as a rare winter visitor on Great Lakes shorelines, harbors, landfills, and open water. Like the Iceland Gull it is usually found singly by scanning through flocks of commoner gulls, and its large size and heavy bill help separate it from the smaller, gentler Iceland. It is a classic and coveted target of winter gull-watching on the Great Lakes.
A large, opportunistic predator and scavenger, taking fish, carrion, refuse, eggs, and even other birds, foraging along shorelines, at harbors, and at landfills. In winter it scavenges among mixed gull flocks on the Great Lakes and can dominate smaller gulls at food.
The Glaucous Gull is larger and bulkier, with a big, heavy pinkish, black-tipped bill and a fiercer expression, while the Iceland Gull is smaller, rounder-headed, and gentler-faced with a smaller bill. Both are pale-winged, so size and bill are the main clues.
Immature Glaucous Gulls are creamy or whitish overall, lacking the darker browns of most young gulls. This ghostly-pale look, combined with large size and a pink bill with a black tip, helps identify them.
In winter on Great Lakes shorelines, harbors, landfills, and open water, usually singly among flocks of commoner gulls. It breeds in the high Arctic and reaches Michigan only as a rare winter visitor.
First-winter birds are pale biscuit-colored with white wingtips and a sharply two-toned pink bill with a clean black tip — that bill is the quickest separation from a young Iceland Gull. Adult plumage takes four years.
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