The Iceland Gull is one of the pale "white-winged" gulls that draw winter gull-watchers to the Great Lakes, prized because it stands out among the darker-winged Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. It is a variable bird — some individuals have nearly white wingtips, others show a little gray — but it lacks the black wingtips of the common gulls, giving it a frosty, pale-winged look. Rounder-headed and gentler-faced than the larger Glaucous Gull, with a relatively small bill, it can be a tricky identification, since gull plumages are famously complex and variable.
Iceland Gulls breed in the high Arctic and come south to winter, reaching Michigan as rare winter visitors on Great Lakes shorelines, harbors, landfills, and open water, usually singly among flocks of commoner gulls. Sorting one out requires patient scanning for a pale-winged bird of the right size and structure. Winter gull flocks at harbors and landfills are the classic place to search, and finding an Iceland Gull is a satisfying reward for the dedicated cold-weather birder.
An opportunistic feeder like other large gulls, taking fish, carrion, refuse, and marine invertebrates, foraging along shorelines, at harbors, and at landfills. In winter it scavenges and forages among mixed gull flocks on the Great Lakes and adjacent open water.
It is an informal term for pale gulls like the Iceland and Glaucous Gulls that lack the black wingtips of common gulls such as the Herring Gull. Their frosty, pale wingtips make them stand out in winter gull flocks.
The Iceland Gull is smaller, rounder-headed, and gentler-faced with a relatively small bill, while the Glaucous Gull is larger and bulkier with a bigger, heavier bill. Both are pale-winged, so size and structure are key, and identification can be challenging.
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-year birds are pale coffee-and-cream with whitish wingtips and a black bill, becoming whiter each year until adulthood at four. Michigan's winter birds are most often these pale immatures.
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