Laughing Gull

Larus atricillaOrder: CHARADRIIFORMESFamily: Gulls, Terns, Skimmers (Laridae)
Laughing Gull Breeding Adult Portrait
  Splitbar
Range Map for Laughing Gull

Overview

Laughing Gull: Medium gull, gray back, white underparts. Head has black hood, neck is white, and bill is red. Wings are gray and white-edged and black at tips; tail is white. Legs and feet are black. Slow flight with deep wing beats. Soars on updrafts. Named for its laughterlike call.

Range and Habitat

Laughing Gull: Lives mainly on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S., ranging from Maine down through Florida and Texas. Spends winters regularly north to Virginia, in smaller numbers farther north. Found in salt marshes, lagoons, and coastal beaches.

Splitbar

Listen:

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Voice Text

"ha, ha, ha, ha"

Splitbar

Related Birds:

Bonaparte's Gull
Franklin's Gull
Heermann's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Black-headed Gull
Little Gull
.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Family Gull (Laridae)_blue
Species Larus atricilla
Length15 - 17 Inches
Wingspan41 Inches

Laughing Gull

Laughing Gull: Medium gull, gray back, white underparts. Head has black hood, neck is white, and bill is red. Wings are gray and white-edged and black at tips; tail is white. Legs and feet are black. Slow flight with deep wing beats. Soars on updrafts. Named for its laughterlike call.

● Song: "ha, ha, ha, ha"

● Foraging & Feeding: Laughing Gull: Feeds on fish, crabs, snails, insects, eggs, and chicks.

● Breeding & nesting: Laughing Gull: Three olive to buff eggs marked with brown are laid in a ground nest lined with grass and weed stems, and built on sand or in a salt marsh. Eggs are incubated for 20 days by both parents.

● Similar species: Laughing Gull: Franklin's Gull is smaller, shorter-billed, rounder-headed, and has shorter wings; breeding adults have darker primary tips, paler primary undersides, and a white bar between gray upperwing and black primaries.

Flight Pattern

Slow flight with deep wing beats.
Laughing Gull Breeding Adult Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Laughing Gull: Lives mainly on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S., ranging from Maine down through Florida and Texas. Spends winters regularly north to Virginia, in smaller numbers farther north. Found in salt marshes, lagoons, and coastal beaches.
BreedingMonogamous, Colonial
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight11.5 Ounces