Vagrant to Ivvavik ⁴

This species is considered a vagrant to Ivvavik National Park, meaning that it is very rarely seen. If you see this species and manage to take a photo, please upload it to iNaturalist and/or send it to us directly at yukoncdc@gov.yk.ca. You will be helping us expand the scientific knowledge of this bird.

Taxon biology ⁵

Many gulls appear vicious and agressive, but not little gulls. They are the smallest European gulls (28cm/11in) and also much less noisy than we are used to with gulls. Breeding adults have a black head, whilst non-breeding adults have a dark cap and ear patch. Little gulls are very rare in the Netherlands. No more than several dozen pairs brood here annually. While the little gull is observed in the wadden region, there are no known cases of successful nests. There have been a few successes in the delta region. All of the nests were found close to those of black-headed gulls. It seems that little gulls find protection from these much more agressive cousins.

Habitat ⁶

NON-BREEDING: Seacoasts, bays, estuaries, rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes, and flooded fields (AOU 1983). BREEDING: Nests usually on ground or on floating or emergent plants in marsh. Two pairs at Portage Point (Michigan) nested on small cattail beds and were near but isolated from common tern colony; nests in Wisconsin were in colonies of Forster's or black tern (Spendelow and Patton 1988).

Trophic strategy ⁷

Forages at water surface for fishes and crustaceans, eats insects caught in flight inland, sometimes feeds at sewer outlets of cities in northeastern U.S. seaboard (Terres 1980).

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Risto Silaste, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/50677435@N00/320607629
2. (c) Ekaterina Chernetsova (Papchinskaya), some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/katechka/14169538536/
3. (c) Andrew C, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/acryptozoo/14497961287/
4. (c) Yukon Conservation Data Centre, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
5. (c) Copyright Ecomare, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22758557
6. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28897847
7. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28897848

More Info

• iNaturalist.ca taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• CalPhotos
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• NBN Atlas
• VertNet
• Xeno-canto
• 日本のレッドデータ検索システム

Range Map

(c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

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