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Glaucous Gull | Larus hyperboreus
Grote burgemeester | Gavión hiperbóreo
A massive, pale gull of Arctic coasts, larger and heavier than a European Herring Gull and without a trace of black in the wing. In the region it is a rare visitor that turns up almost only on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and Western Sahara, where some birds have lingered in the same harbour for months or even years.
Voice
Lower, hoarser and slower than European Herring Gull, a growling gaah-gaah; birds in the region are almost always silent.
Recording: Mats Rellmar — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
Adults have a very pale grey mantle and wholly white primaries; the bill is heavy and yellow with a red gonys spot, the eye pale yellow, the legs pink. In winter the head is brownish mottled. First-years are uniformly sandy-buff to milky-coffee, finely barred, with cream-white primaries and a pink bill with a sharply cut-off black tip, a feature visible at range. Second-years are paler, almost white. The build is heavy: deep chest, thick neck, flat crown and short primary projection beyond the tail.
Confusion species
Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides) also has white primaries, but is smaller and slighter, with a round head, a short bill and wingtips projecting well beyond the tail; first-years have a largely dark bill rather than pink with a sharp black tip. Pale or worn European Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), Yellow-Legged Gulls (Larus michahellis) and Caspian Gulls (Larus cachinnans) can appear white-tipped in spring through wear; check the shafts and the underside of the primaries, which stay dark in those species. Leucistic gulls and hybrids are a known pitfall.
Habitat
Harbours, fish markets, estuaries and coastal lagoons, where it feeds on fish waste among other large gulls and rests on sandbars. In the region rarely far from the sea.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
In Morocco a rare but by now familiar visitor along the Atlantic coast: among others at Larache (Lixus salt pans and the Loukkos marsh, 1980, and a lingering bird in 2010–2013), Oualidia, Essaouira, where one bird stayed in the harbour from December 2014 into September 2016, and Khnifiss lagoon, where two birds were seen together in January 2015. In Western Sahara it has been reported on the Dakhla peninsula (April 2015 and March 2022). In Israel it is extremely rare (including a report from Haifa Bay in 2025), and from Jordan there is only an old, uncertain specimen from Aqaba (1914). There are no certain records from the rest of the region. Beyond it, it breeds around the Arctic, from Iceland and Svalbard to Siberia, Alaska and Greenland, and winters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, in small numbers south to western and southern Europe.
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In winter, scan the large gulls in the fishing harbours of Essaouira and Larache and at Khnifiss lagoon: a big, pale bird without black wingtips stands out at once. Known long-stayers in Morocco are reported on the GO-South website.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. In the region a rare visitor, recorded several times in Morocco since 1980 and with some regularity especially since 2010; outside Morocco and Western Sahara extremely rare.
Scientific name
Larus hyperboreus | Gunnerus, 1767
Gunnerus described the species in 1767 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Larus was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Larus is Latin, from Ancient Greek laros, and appears to have referred to a gull or another large seabird. hyperboreus is Latin for 'northern', after the Ancient Greek Hyperboreoi, the people said to live in the far north. The specimen the first description was based on came from northern Norway.