Gull the exceptions being Sabine's gull and swallow-tailed gulls, which have forked tails, and Ross's gull, which has a wedge-shaped tail. Gulls have moderately long legs, especially when compared to the similar terns, with fully webbed feet. The bill is generally heavy and slightly hooked, with the larger species having stouter bills than the smaller species. The bill colour is often yellow with a red spot for the larger white-headed species and red, dark red or black in the smaller species. The gulls are generalist feeders. Indeed, they are the least specialised of all the seabirds, and their morphology allows for
Ivory gull Ivory gull The ivory gull ("Pagophila eburnea") is a small gull, the only species in the genus Pagophila. It breeds in the high Arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. The ivory gull was initially described by Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave in 1774 as "Larus eburneus" from a specimen collected on Spitsbergen. Johann Jakob Kaup later recognized the unique traits of the ivory gull and gave it a monotypic genus, "Pagophila", in 1829. Johan Ernst Gunnerus later gave the species a new specific name, "Pagophila alba". The genus name "Pagophila" is from Ancient