This is bird note.

Polar bears symbolize the icy landscapes of the far north like no other animal.

The bear's way of life, its very survival, is inseparable from the Arctic pack ice.

Less familiar is a remarkable bird that shares with the polar bear this vital link to ice, the ivory gull.

Just as polar bears are clad in white fur, ivory gulls are feathered entirely in white,

adapted to the whiteness of their world. Long-winged and graceful in flight,

ivory gulls breed on the northernmost islands

of the Canadian Arctic and other high Arctic sites.

They spend the winter near the pack-ice.

The gulls feed on small fish and other marine life,

but also scavenged carcasses, including those left by polar bears.

As a polar bear consumes the choice parts of a seal,

ivory gulls wait at the edge of the action,

intent on sharing the leftovers.

Global warming has brought increasing change to the world of ice-dependent species, such as the ivory gull and polar bear.

This white gull, like the white bear, represents an entire ecosystem at risk, as the extent and the thickness of sea ice is decreasing.

There's more on our website at birdnote.org.

I'm Mary McCann.