Glaucous Gull

Scientific Name: Larus hyperboreus

Range / Habitat: Breeds in coastal areas of the circumpolar Arctic. Winters generally in costal areas slightly further south.

Field Notes: Large white gull with light grey mantle. Wingtips white, in contrast to most other grey-maltled gulls its size. Iceland Gull more dainty. Glaucous-winged Gull with grey or dusky wingtips in all plumages.

Personal Notes: Above photo from Isafjordur, Iceland.

Slender-billed Gull

Scientific Name: Chroicocephalus genei

Population Estimate: Unknown, but Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Breeding range around the Mediterranean and the north of the western Indian Ocean on islands and coastal lagoons. Wintering further south to north Africa and India.

Field Notes: Medium-sized non-hooded gull with light grey mantle. Neck and bill with slender, elegant appearance. Legs and bill are dark red, appearing black. summer, the breast has a pink colouration.

Personal Notes:

Silver Gull

Scientific Name: Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae

Population Estimate: 100K - 1M

Range / Habitat: Found on costal and inland waterways throughout Australia and Tasmania.

Field Notes: Medium-sized white-headed gull with light grey mantle. Adults with striking red bill, eye ring and feet as in top photo. Juveniles with dusky bill and legs as in bottom photo. Similar in appearance to Red-billed Gull in New Zealand, with which some sources consider it conspecific. 

Personal Notes: Seen at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. 

Pacific Gull

Scientific Name: Larus pacificus

Population Estimate: 11K

Range / Habitat: Endemic to Australia where found along the western and southern coasts.

Field Notes: Large, black-backed gull with all black tail. Massive yellow bill with red tip. Unmistakable in range.

Personal Notes: Seen on the Melbourne coast.

Black-fronted Tern

Scientific Name: Chlidonias albostriatus

Population Estimate: 2.5K - 10K, Endangered status

Range / Habitat: Endemic to New Zealand where found on inland gravel riverbeds of the South Island, primarily east of the alpine range.

Field Notes: Small hooded tern with markedly blue-grey wings. Bill and legs orange. In breeding plumage, black cap present which extends down to bill. Antarctic Tern similar but does not overlap in range. White-fronted Tern rarely seen inland and with black bill.

Personal Notes: A great end to our South Island holiday. Seen outside of Methven on the Rakaia River. Maori name Tarapiroe.

White-fronted Tern

Scientific Name: Sterna striata

Population Estimate: 1.5M

Range / Habitat: Coasts of New Zealand and Australia.

Field Notes: Pale hooded tern with long black bill and short black or reddish-black legs. Breeding plumage (as above) with black cap separated from bill by white forehead. Black-fronted Tern found inland on South Island and with orange bill.

Personal Notes: A delightful find in Wellington Harbor during a rainy Sunday farmers' market. Maori name Tara.

Bridled Tern

Scientific Name: Onychoprion anaethetus

Population Estimate: 610K to 1.5M

Range / Habitat: Bird of the tropical oceans, breeding off the Pacific and Atlantic coast of Central America including the Carribean, off small areas of western Africa, around Arabia and eastern Africa down to South Africa, off the coast of India, and in much of south-east Asia and Australasia excluding southern Australia and New Zealand. They overwinter at sea.

Field Notes: Medium-sized but delicate tern with thin black bill. Minimal black crest and eye stripe form a "bridle" on the otherwise white head and neck. Wings and tail dark grey, underparts white. Least Tern considerably smaller with yellow bill and legs.

Personal Notes: Seen offshore from Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Bonaparte's Gull

Scientific Name: Chroicocephalus philadelphia

Population Estimate: 260-530K, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Breeding habitat near bogs or lakes in coniferous forest across western Canada and Alaska. Winters in the Great Lakes, southern Mississippi River Valley, northern Mexico, Caribbean.

Field Notes: Slight, graceful hooded gulls. In breeding plumage (top photo), bill is all black and slender, legs orange / red. Little Gull has more extensive dark hood, no white eye crescents, short / pale wing tips. Black-headed Gull has orange base of bill. Franklin's Gull and Laughing Gull are larger with dark legs.

Personal Notes: Seen on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island. The first good spot after our birding guide ditched us. The day was turning around…. Later seen in non-breeding plumage (bottom photo) on the Salton Sea in California. 

Glaucous-winged Gull

Scientific Name: Larus glaucescens

Population Estimate: 570K

Range / Habitat: Northwest coast of North America

Field Notes: Large gull with light grey mantle and wing tips. Note grey underside of wing extending to tip in the upper photo (distinguishes Glaucous-winged Gull from Glaucous Gull, which has all white wing tips).

Personal Notes:

Mew Gull

Scientific Name: Larus Canus

Population Estimate: 2.5M - 3.7M

Range / Habitat: The common gull has a wide distribution, breeding throughout temperate and sub-Arctic parts of Eurasia. Two subspecies occur in Europe, the ‘nominate’ race L. c. canus is the subspecies occurring in Britain, extending through north-west Europe and reaching the White Sea in Russia. There is also a subspecies that occurs in North America. In Britain, this species breeds mainly in Scotland

Field Notes: It is generally similar in appearance to the herring gull (Larus argentatus) but is smaller, and has a smaller, thinner bill, a more rounded head and more active flight. The upperwings are pale grey in colour and have black tips featuring white spots known as ‘mirrors’. The white head develops grey streaks in winter and the legs and bill are greenish-yellow. Juveniles are greyish brown with brown upperparts.

Personal Notes:

Forster's Tern

Scientific Name: Sterna Forsteri

Population Estimate: 120K

Range / Habitat: Breeds on inland marshes in the American West and parts of Canada. Winters along the southern US coast, into Mexico, and in the Caribbean. Rare vagrant to western Europe.

Field Notes: Medium-sized, black-capped tern. Breeding plumage as above. Legs are orange, which cannot be appreciated in the photo. Non-breeding plumage is unmistakable with black eye and ear patch on a white head. Overlaps some in migration and breeding range with Common Tern, which has darker mantle and duller bill and legs.

Personal Notes: We frequently saw this tern hunting over the flats of the Great Salt Lake.

Franklin's Gull

Scientific Name: Leucophaeus Pipixcan

Population Estimate: 470K - 1.5M

Range / Habitat: Breeds in the prairies of central Canada. Migrates through central North America and winters along the Pacific coast of South America.

Field Notes: Small, hooded gull with thick white crescents above and below eyes. Mantle dark grey. In breeding plumage (lower photo), the head is entirely black. In non breeding plumage (top photo), the head is mottled grey, though still with white eye crescents. Laughing Gull quite similar but very limited range overlap (winter along northwest South American coast).

Personal Notes:

California Gull

Scientific Name: Larus Californicus

Population Estimate: 620K

Range / Habitat: Summers / breeds inland in the western US and north into Manitoba. Winters along the US Pacific Coast.

Field Notes: Medium-sized, white-headed gull with dark grey mantle. Yellow legs and bill with both red and black marks on bill. Ring-billed Gull lacks the red mark on the bill. Herring Gull has pinkish legs and no black mark on bill in the adult.

Personal Notes:

Common Tern

Scientific Name: Sterna hirundo

Population Estimate: 1.6M - 4.6M

Range: Breeds inland across the northern US and Canada. Winters along the coast in Mexico, Central America, and into northern South America.

Field Notes: Medium-sized, black-capped tern. Non-breeding plumage as above. Breeding plumage with orange bill and uniform black cap. Forster's Tern with black eye / ear mask in winter, and by brighter orange bill and legs in breeding plumage.

Personal Notes: We found this petite tern among the large gulls along the downtown beach in Puerto Vallarta.

Heermann's Gull

Scientific Name: Larus Heermanni

Population Estimate: 530K

Range / Habitat: Heermann’s gull breeds off the coast of Mexico and in the Gulf of California, particularly on Isla Rasa, where the population has a stronghold. Very occasionally it is seen breeding in San Francisco Bay. Non-breeders spend the breeding season at the wintering sites along the coasts of California and British Colombia.

Field Notes: The Heermann's Gull (Larus heermanni) is distinctive with a dark grey-brown back and wings, pale grey underside and rump, and white head, tips to the tail and wing feathers. The bill is bright red and sometimes tipped with black. The legs are black. Non-breeding adults have grey or brown streaks on the head and immature birds are dark brown all over, with a pale base to the red bill.

Personal Notes:

Elegant Tern

Scientific Name: Thalasseus elegans

Population Estimate: 50K - 90K, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Breeds in dense colonies on Pacific coast and offshore islands of southern US and Mexico. Winters south along Pacific coast to Peru, Ecuador and Chile

Field Notes: Medium tern with grey wings, black legs, shaggy black crest, and thin orange bill which is lighter at the tip and can appear to droop. In non-breeding adults, black cap recedes but still contiguous with eye. Royal Tern larger, darker bill, cap does not extend to eyes in non-breeding adults. Caspian Tern much larger, bright red bill with dark tip, no crest.

Personal Notes: Seen in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Herring Gull

Scientific Name: Larus smithsonianus

Population Estimate: 2.7M to 5.7M (for both American and European Herring Gull)

Location of Sighting: Lock & Dam #2, Hastings, MN

Date of Sighting: January, 2010

Notes: The most "gull-like" of the gulls. Medium-sized stock white-headed gull. The above is a 3rd cycle gull so still has somewhat indistinct grey back and black ring on the bill instead of the characteristic red spot of the adult. The Ring-billed Gull would have yellow legs and less of a neck. The Thayer's Gull would have a black eye.

Laughing Gull

Scientific Name: Larus atricilla

Population Estimate: 825K

Range: Year-round throughout the Gulf coast. Will extend up the Atlantic in the summer, and found throughout Mexico in the winter.

Field Notes: Small, black-headed gull. Rarely found inland. Non-breeding plumage as above. Breeding plumage would have completely black head with dark red bill. Differentiated from similar Franklin's Gull primarily by distribution.

Personal Notes:

Royal Tern

Scientific Name: Thalasseus maximus

Population Estimate: 370K

Range / Habitat: Found on coasts of southern US, Mexico and Central America. These birds winter on the coasts of Peru and Argentina. There is a also a population on the west coast of Africa which shows seasonal movement.

Field Notes: Large tern with grey wings, black legs, black crest, and large oarge bill. Black crest recedes in non-breeding adults, as above. Caspian Tern lighter grey, larger, black cap but no crest, and red bill with black tip. Elegant Tern (which has more restricted range) is smaller, thinner orange bill has light tip which appears to droop, non-breeding cap extends through eye.

Personal Notes: 

Yellow-legged Gull

Scientific Name: Larus michahellis

Population Estimate: 760K - 1.8M

Range / Habitat: The breeding range is centred around the Mediterranean Sea. In North Africa it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places

Field Notes: Adults have darker grey backs and wings than herring gulls, but are paler than lesser black-backed gulls. They have more black in the wing tips than herring gulls and smaller white 'mirrors'. The legs are bright yellow, there is a red ring around the eye and the bill is yellow with a large red spot. In non-breeding plumage, the head is less streaked and whiter than herring gulls.

Personal Notes: We got other shots of this gull in Spain, but still like the top photo best -- sulking through the rain on the Plaza San Marco in Venice.