Meet the vega gull––formerly a subspecies of herring gull, but now a species of its own
The stew of life and energy along our coastlines can be exhilarating at this time of year when gulls, belugas and seals converge to feast upon schools of tomcod and rainbow smelt spawning in the shallows of Norton Sound’s coastal waters.
The noisy, whirling flocks of diving, squabbling gulls wear a confusing assortment of plumages. When they roost on the shoreline or water to digest their fish, it’s a good time to try to sort out who’s who in the gull world.
Most of these gulls are glaucous gulls of different ages and stages of molt. They are by far the most common gull in the region. However, especially in spring and fall, a few other large, very similar-looking species often join them in small numbers. Adults of these species can often be distinguished by looking closely at the gull’s wingtips.
Adult glaucous gulls have plain, white wingtips. Gulls with gray-and-white wingtips are glaucous-winged gulls (see Birder’s Notebook in the December 14, 2023 edition of The Nome Nugget).
This fall I’ve had my eye out for the few large, gray-backed gulls with black-and-white wingtips. Previously in this region, such gulls could usually be identified as herring gulls, unless they had the very dark, charcoal-gray back of a slaty-backed gull. But identifying gulls with black-and-white on their wingtips just got a bit more complicated.
Until recently, one species of herring gull with multiple subspecies occurred all across the Northern Hemisphere. In 2024, genetic, structural and vocal differences led ornithologists to split the herring gull into four separate species: American herring gull, European herring gull, Mongolian gull, and vega gull.
Norton Sound is at the edge of the range for both the vega gull, which breeds to the west, and the American herring gull, which breeds to the east.
The vega gull is an east Asian species that breeds across the coast of northeastern Russia. St. Lawrence Island is the eastern extent of the gull’s breeding range and is their only regular nesting site in Alaska.
The American herring gull breeds across northern North America, including interior Alaska. Nonbreeders occasionally spill over into this region and are found most often in eastern Norton Sound. They are rarely seen as far west as St. Lawrence Island.
In much of the region we are more likely to see the vega gull than the American herring gull. However, in eastern Norton Sound the American herring gull is perhaps more common.
The vega gull has a medium gray back (mantle) that is distinctly darker in color than the light gray mantle of the American herring gull. The eye (iris) of the vega gull is a darker yellow than the very light-yellow eyes of the American herring gull. An orange-red orbital ring surrounds the iris of the vega gull, while the ring is lacking in the American herring. It is surprising how well eye color stands out when using binoculars in good light.
The first vega gulls of spring typically arrive at St. Lawrence Island in late April. They breed at many sites on the island. The largest concentrations of breeding birds are found on the Punuk Islands off the east end of St. Lawrence and along Koozata Lagoon on the south coast of the island.
In 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that 400 pairs of herring gulls of the vega subspecies (now known as vega gulls) were nesting on St. Lawrence Island.
Vega gulls form long-term, monogamous pair bonds and reunite each year on the male’s territory. Both parents incubate and care for the young. One of the pair always attends the nest to defend against neighboring gulls that could quickly make a meal of the eggs and young.
Vega gulls sometimes nest in association with glaucous gulls and occasionally hybridize. The resulting offspring, with characteristics of both species, add to the challenge of identifying gulls.
Opportunistic predators and scavengers, vega gulls feed on a wide variety of foods. Their diet includes fish, marine invertebrates, insects, worms, small mammals, berries, eggs, young and adult birds, and carrion of all kinds. Refuse from landfills and offal from fishing boats and processing facilities are all on their menu.
Mature and immature vega gulls are seen regularly throughout coastal areas of the Bering Strait region in spring and fall, before and after the breeding season. A few often linger into November.
Most of our large gulls remain in northern waters over the winter. However, many vega gulls are long-distance migrants that follow coastal routes to winter in coastal regions of Japan, Korea and China.
The global population and conservation status of the vega gull has not yet been evaluated and is unknown.