The laughing gull (''Leucophaeus atricilla'') is a medium-sized

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''no ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. Named for its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic

omnivore An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nut ...

and

scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. The two subspecies are: ''L. a. megalopterus'' – which can be seen from southeast Canada down to

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, and ''L. a. atricilla'' which appears from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

to the

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

n islands. The laughing gull was long placed in the genus '' Larus'' until its present placement in ''Leucophaeus'', which follows the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

Name

The genus name ''Leucophaeus'' is from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

λευκός : ''leukós'', "white", and φαιός : ''phaios'', "dusky". The specific ''atricilla'' is from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''atra'', "black", " unlucky" or "malevolent" and ''cilla'', "tail". According to the ''Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names'',

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, t ...

may have intended to write ''atricapilla'' (black-haired), which would have been more appropriate, as the bird has a black head and white tail.

Range

It breeds on the

coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. Northernmost populations

migrate Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

farther south in winter, and this species occurs as a rare vagrant to

western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

. The laughing gull's English name is derived from its raucous ''kee-agh'' call, which sounds like a high-pitched laugh "ha... ha... ha...". Laughing gulls breed in coastal

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

es and ponds in large

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

. The large nest, made largely from

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in law ...

es, is constructed on the ground. The three or four greenish eggs are incubated for about three weeks.

Description

This species is long with a wingspan and a weight range of 203–371g (7.2-13.1 oz). The summer adult's body is white apart from the dark grey back and wings and black head. Its wings are much darker grey than all other gulls of similar size except the smaller Franklin's gull, and they have black tips without the white crescent shown by Franklin's. The

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for fo ...

is long and red. The black hood is mostly lost in winter. Laughing gulls take three years to reach adult plumage. Immature birds are always darker than most similar-sized gulls other than Franklin's. First-year birds are greyer below and have paler heads than first-year Franklin's, and second-years can be distinguished by the wing pattern and structure.

Subspecies

The two subspecies are: *''L. a. megalopterus'' – ( Bruch, 1855): coastal southeast Canada, eastern & southern United States, Mexico &

*''L. a. atricilla'' – (

, 1758):

n islands Like most other members of the genus '' Leucophaeus'', the laughing gull was long placed in the genus '' Larus''. The present placement in ''Leucophaeus'' follows the

Gallery

Image:Laughing Gull - mating plumage.jpg, Mating plumage includes black head and red bill Image:Larus atricilla1.jpg, Definitive alternate plumage Image:Flying Laughing Gull.jpg, Adult in mid-May (definitive alternate plumage) Image:Laughing-gull.jpg, Laughing gull, alternate plumage, North Carolina, US, 2016 Image:Laughing Gulls on sand.jpg, Adult in winter (definitive basic plumage) Image:Laughing Gull juvenile.jpg, Juvenile Image:Laughing gull St Thomas.JPG, Adult at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (definitive alternate plumage) Image:Laughing gull Porthmadog.jpg, Vagrant in definitive basic plumage in the UK in late 2005 Image:Caneel Bay Seagulls By Caneel Beach 15.jpg, Preparing to land on beach Image:Guanaguanre (Larus atricilla) de los Roques Venezuela 000.jpg, Los Roques Venezuela File:Larus atricilla MWNH 0343.JPG, Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Image:Trim.F419E503-74D1-4BE4-90FA-31A0C888E761.webm, Laughing Gulls following a shrimp boat off the coast of Jacksonville Florida Laughing gull (02914).jpg, First winter laughing gull in Riverhead, New York

References

External links

Laughing Gull - ''Larus atricilla''
- USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Field Guide on Flickr

Laughing Gull Bird Sound
at Florida Museum of Natural History * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q528764 laughing gull Native birds of the Northeastern United States Native birds of the Eastern United States Native birds of the Southeastern United States Birds of Central America Birds of the Caribbean Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds of Venezuela laughing gull laughing gull Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN