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Laughing Gull | Leucophaeus atricilla
Lachmeeuw | Gaviota guanaguanare
The Laughing Gull is the only gull that breeds widely in the Caribbean and the gull most often seen in harbours, bays and on beaches. Its name refers to its loud, laughing call series. In summer it is common on almost all islands; in winter many Caribbean breeders move south and northern birds arrive, especially in the Greater Antilles.
Voice
The best-known call is a long series of high, laughing notes, ha-ha-ha-haah-haah, drawn out at the end; also a nasal kee-ah and short ka calls.
Recording: David Darrell-Lambert — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
36–41 cm, with long, narrow wings and a long, slightly drooping bill. Adults have dark slate-grey upperparts, black wing tips with at most small white spots, a white trailing edge to the wing and dark legs. In breeding plumage the head is black with a broken white eye-ring and the bill dark red; in winter the head is white with a grey wash on the nape and ear coverts, and the bill is black. It takes three years to reach adult plumage. First-year birds are grey-brown on the head, breast and wings, with a grey mantle, dark wings and a broad black band on the white tail.
Confusion species
Franklin's Gull Leucophaeus pipixcan is smaller, with a rounder head, a shorter bill, broader white eye crescents, a dark half-hood in winter and a white band between the grey and black of the wing tip. Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis is larger and paler grey, with a yellow, black-ringed bill. Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus and Bonaparte's Gull Chroicocephalus philadelphia are paler grey, with a white leading edge to the primaries.
Habitat
Coastal waters, bays, harbours, beaches, salt pans, mangrove lagoons and river mouths; it follows fishing boats and feeds at fish markets and rubbish dumps. It picks food from the water in flight, walks on beaches and flats and steals fish from Brown Pelicans. It breeds in colonies on small islets and cays, in low vegetation or among rocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Breeds throughout the region: the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Lesser Antilles, the ABC Islands, San Andrés and Trinidad and Tobago. In winter it is scarcer in the Lesser Antilles and the south, but more numerous in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. Beyond the region it breeds along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America, in Mexico and along the north coast of South America, and winters south to Peru and Brazil.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the breeding season it can be found almost anywhere in harbours, at fish markets and on beaches. Flocks of Laughing Gulls are also the place to look for rarer gulls such as Franklin's or Black-headed Gull.
Conservation status
Not threatened globally. In the nineteenth century it declined sharply along the American coast through egg collecting and the plume trade, and has since recovered. In the Caribbean colonies are still locally disturbed and eggs taken.
Scientific name
Leucophaeus atricilla | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Larus Atricilla; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Leucophaeus was introduced in 1855 by Bruch. Leucophaeus is Ancient Greek, from leukos 'white' and phaios 'dusky'. atricilla combines Latin ater 'black' with modern Latin cilla 'tail', after the black tail of young birds; Linnaeus may have meant atricapilla 'black-capped'. The specimen the first description was based on came from the Bahamas.