Ross's Gull

Ross's Gull

Ross's Gull, Rhodostethea rosea, was named after Sir John Ross, the man who first described the bird early in the 19th century. For many years thereafter it was a bird of mystery. Fridtjof Nansen, in his book Farthest North, tells of seeing flocks of birds flying past in July, 1895, when he was in the area of Franz Joseph Land. It is now known that they breed on the Taimyr Peninsula in Russia, in western and southern Greenland, and at Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson Bay. Unlike other species the Ross's Gull migrates north from its breeding areas and where it spends the winter is still unknown. One of Ross's Gull can be seen on a stamp of Russia released in 1972.