Page 432 - Complete Birds of Britain and Europe (DK - RSPB)

SKUAS, GULLS,AND TERNS
Family Laridae Species Larus audouinii Family Laridae Species Larus ichthyaetus
Audouin’s Gull Great Black-headed Gull
Once very rare, now increasing,Audouin’s Gull is In summer, this huge gull has a black hood, pale grey
slimmer-winged, narrower-tailed, and stubbier-billed back, white outer wings, and small black wingtips, set
than the Herring Gull (see p.209).Adults are very pale off by yellow legs and a long yellow bill banded black
grey, their wingtips extensively black with tiny white and red. In winter, the hood is lost and immature birds
spots on the feather tips.They have grey or greenish have a grey smudge through the eye. Often confused
legs and dark red bills, banded black and tipped yellow. with Herring Gulls (see p.209), the flat forehead and
The dark eye and long white face shape are distinctive. long bill profile are useful for identification.
Young birds are dark, with mostly black dark OCCURRENCE Very rare in jet-black
tails, very long wings, and blackish legs. eye Europe, regular in Middle East hood
OCCURRENCE Breeds in E Spain, outside breeding season.
Balearics, Morocco, and Mediter- VOICE Deep, nasal, pale grey
ranean islands, rare in Atlantic. throttled call in flight back
VOICE Low, nasal calls. but mostly silent.

ADULT

yellow legs
ADULT
grey legs (SUMMER)

Length 44–52cm (17 1 ⁄2 –20 1 ⁄2in) Wingspan 1.17–1.28m (3 3 ⁄4 –4 1 ⁄4ft) Length 58–67cm (23–26in) Wingspan 1.46–1.62m (4 3 ⁄4 –5 1 ⁄4ft)

Family Laridae Species Larus sabini Family Laridae Species Larus pipixcan
Sabine’s Gull Franklin’s Gull
This rare autumn migrant is brought close inshore in A small, dark, short-legged gull, Franklin’s Gull looks
northwest Europe by Atlantic gales. It resembles a like a Laughing Gull but has a white band crossing the
juvenile Kittiwake (see p.216) but the wing pattern is wing near the black and white tip.The bill is typically
composed of three sharp triangles, dark (grey on adults, short, less tapered, and less drooping in appearance than
grey-brown on juveniles) in front, black at the tip, and a Laughing Gull’s, but some are difficult to separate on
pure white at the back, with no diagonal the ground.Young birds have white on the breast and
short dark
black band. Unlike immature Kittiwakes, bill with flanks where Laughing Gulls are dark, and dark outer
which lose most of their black yellow tip primaries unlike the much paler
dark head dark hood
and look dull and scruffy, (pale in Black-headed Gulls (see p.206). (jet-black in
Sabine’s Gull looks very neat. autumn, Common Gulls are paler and summer)
winter)
OCCURRENCE Regular in much larger (see p.207). pale eye-
autumn off W Europe,rare in North Sea. OCCURRENCE Very rare in ring
VOICE Tern-like calls unlikely to be NW Europe, from North America.
heard from migrants. VOICE Soft nasal calls, but
usually rather silent.

ADULT
ADULT black legs (WINTER)
(SUMMER)

Length 30–36cm (12–14in) Wingspan 80–87cm (32–34in) Length 32–36cm (12 1 ⁄2 –14in) Wingspan 80–87cm (32–34in)
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