Photo: Birds of the World
Perhaps the hardiest gull in the world, but global warming imperils the species. It's a two-year Arctic gull that is ghostly pale. The all-white plumage is not acquired until its second year.
It does have black eyes, legs and feet and a yellow-tipped dark bill. The all-white plumage is distinctive and there are no similar gulls.
It's closely connected to pack ice and winters primarily in Arctic seas. They are casual along the Atlantic coast to New York and inland to the northern tier of states, but accidental to Tennessee.
It is a smallish gull (pigeon-sized) that is almost never found far from snow and ice and rarely winters farther south than drifting ice or pack ice.
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BarrytheBirder
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