BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary
Rhodostethia rosea
Ross's Gull
| Scientific Name: | Rhodostethia rosea (MacGillivray, 1824) | ||||||||||
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| English Name: | Ross's Gull | ||||||||||
| Classification / Taxonomy | |||||||||||
| Scientific Name - Concept Reference: | American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/. | ||||||||||
| Classification Level: | Species | ||||||||||
| Species Group: | Vertebrate Animal | ||||||||||
| Species Code: | B-ROGU | ||||||||||
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| Conservation Status / Legal Designation | |||||||||||
| Global Status: | G4 (Apr 2016) | ||||||||||
| Provincial Status: | SNA (Apr 2023) | ||||||||||
| BC List: | Accidental | ||||||||||
| Provincial FRPA list: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Wildlife Act: | |||||||||||
| COSEWIC Status: | Endangered (May 2021) | ||||||||||
| SARA Schedule: | 1 - Threatened (Jun 2003) | ||||||||||
| SARA Comments: | Accidental in BC | ||||||||||
| General Status Canada: | 1 - At Risk (2005) | ||||||||||
| Migratory Bird Convention Act: | Y | ||||||||||
| Ecology & Life History | |||||||||||
| General Description: | |||||||||||
| Global Reproduction Comments: | Clutch size is 2-3 (usually 3) eggs, laid in May-June (mainly first half of June). Incubation, by both sexes (female at night, male in daytime), lasts about 21 days. Usually this gull nests in small colonies. | ||||||||||
| Migration Characteristics: (Global / Provincial) | |||||||||||
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Nonmigrant: Local Migrant: Distant Migrant: Within Borders Migrant: |
N / N / Y / na / |
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| Global Migration Comments: | Migrants begin to move eastward from nesting areas in East Siberian Sea in July-August, first appear in southern Chukchi Sea in mid-August. Migrants occur in large numbers in vicinity of Point Barrow, Alaska, in September-October (Terres 1980), depart Arctic Ocean with freeze-up (see Hjort et al. 1997). Arrival in breeding areas is mainly in late May-early June. |
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| Habitats: (Type / Subtype / Dependence) |
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| Global Habitat Comments: | Nesting occurs in marshy wetlands along coastal lowlands or in wooded valleys, on islands in lakes, and on gravel reefs, often with arctic terns (Terres 1980, Johnson and Herter 1989, AOU 1998, Mallpry et al. 2006). During the nonbreeding season, this gull is mostly pelagic. | ||||||||||
| Food Habits: |
Invertivore: Adult, Immature
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| Global Food Habits Comments: | On Arctic breeding grounds thus gull eats beetles, gnats, and other insects; at sea, possibly marine crustaceans (e.g., euphausiids) and other animals of plankton (Bent 1921, Terres 1980). | ||||||||||
| Global Phenology: |
Diurnal: Adult, Immature
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| Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month) |
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| Colonial Breeder: | Y | ||||||||||
| Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): | 34/ / 187 | ||||||||||
| Elevation (m) (min / max): |
Global:
Provincial: |
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| Distribution | |||||||||||
| Endemic: | N | ||||||||||
| Global Range Comment: | Breeding range includes scattered locations in northern Siberia, and a small number of individuals have nested on Cheyne Island (east of Bathurst Island, arctic Canada, 1976 and 1978), Prince Charles Island and Penny Strait (Nunavut, Canada), in northeastern Manitoba (Churchill, Canada, since 1980), and in Greenland (AOU 1998, Mallory et al. 2006). Winter range apparently is mainly in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk (see Hjort et al. 1997). | ||||||||||
| Authors / Contributors | |||||||||||
| Global Information Author: | Hammerson, G. | ||||||||||
| Last Updated: | May 17, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Provincial Information Author: | |||||||||||
| Last Updated: | |||||||||||
| References and Related Literature | |||||||||||
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp. |
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Bent, A.C. 1921. Life histories of North American gulls and terns. U.S. Natl. Mus. Bull. 113. Washington, D.C. |
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Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, et al. 1990b. The Birds of British Columbia Vol. 2: Nonpasserines: Diurnal Birds of Prey through Woodpeckers. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, BC. |
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Evans, P. G. H. 1984a. The seabirds of Greenland: their status and conservation. Pages 49-84 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Pub. No. 2. |
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Harrison, P. 1983. Seabirds: An identification guide. Croom Helm, London, England. 448 pp. |
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Johnson, S. R. and D. R. Herter. 1989. The Birds of the Beaufort Sea. BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., Anchorage, Alaska. 372 pp. |
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Sibley, C.G., and B.L. Monroe, Jr. 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. xxiv + 1111 pp. |
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Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. |
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Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.
Suggested Citation:
B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 2009. Species Summary: Rhodostethia rosea. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Oct 3, 2026).