Gulls of the Land of Ice and Fire

And other gull-like creatures.

These photos are from a stopover trip to Iceland, the land of ice and fire! 

In the first pictures you can see Black-headed Gulls (number 60 on our list). They are sea gulls, very similar to Franklin's Gulls and Laughing Gulls. Seen all around the area of the old harbour of Reykjavik, catching fish and eating garbage.

Black-headed Gull in Tjorn lake, Reykjavik.

Below you can see more gulls from the harbour of Reykjavik.

59. Black-legged Kittiwake. Its field marks are the unmarked yellow beak and the unspotted black (as if they were sinked in ink) wingtips.

58. Iceland Gull. A pale almost white sea gull. Adults have yellow bills with a red spot. Photos below show a juvenile whose bill is all-black.

baby Iceland Gull (first summer)

57. Lesser Black-backed Gull. One of the most common gulls in Iceland. The pictures below are from Tjorn lake in the center of Reykjavik.

56. Arctic tern (not a gull), an -also- very common sea bird in Iceland (and theme of many Icelandic postcards). It was detected in downtown Reykjavik, the old harbour, lake Tjorn, lake Ellidavatn, almost everywhere I 've been to in Iceland.

Wiki fun fact Recent studies have shown average annual roundtrip lengths of about 70,900km (44,100mi) for Arctic terns nesting in Iceland and Greenland. These are by far the longest migrations known in the animal kingdom.

Mermaid statue in Tjorn lake

55. Northern Fulmar A bird that is gull-like and very often mistaken for a gull, although it is not. It is a relative of the albatross. It is gull-shaped and gull-sized and it is pale, usually in varying shades of grey. It seemed to me that its upper parts where blue-gray. Its beak is also pale.

Northern Fulmar in the old harbour

Nesting in a cliff in South Iceland (near Vik village)

(All seen 1-6th of June 2015)

I think I have some more gulls from Iceland that I will identify in the next days.

In the identification of all these gulls, Steve Hampton, helped me out. He is the creator of this site: http://www.tertial.us/gulls/gulls.htm .