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Black-legged Kittiwake | Rissa tridactyla
Drieteenmeeuw | Gaviota tridáctila
The Black-legged Kittiwake is a true seagoing gull of the northern oceans, living on the open sea outside the breeding season. The guide area lies at the southern edge of its winter range: the species is a scarce and irregular winter visitor, mainly off the coast of Baja California. In some winters more birds come south than in others.
Voice
Almost silent outside the breeding season. At the breeding site a nasal kitti-wee-uk, from which the species takes its English name.
Recording: Christian Kerihuel — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
37–42 cm, a medium-sized gull with a gentle expression, a dark eye, a small, unmarked yellow bill and short black legs. Adults have mid-grey mantle and wings that become paler towards the wingtip, with sharply cut, all-black wingtips without white spots, as if dipped in ink. Outside the breeding season a grey patch behind the eye and a grey hindneck. Juveniles have a black bill, a black collar, a black zigzag band in the shape of an M across the upperwing and a narrow black terminal band on the slightly notched tail.
Confusion species
Juvenile Sabine's Gulls Xema sabini have a grey-brown mantle and a large white triangle on the rear of the wing, without a black M. Juvenile Bonaparte's Gulls Chroicocephalus philadelphia are smaller, with a dark ear spot, pink legs and a less crisp wing pattern. Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis and Short-billed Gull Larus brachyrhynchus have yellow or greenish-yellow legs and white spots in the black wingtip.
Habitat
Open sea and the continental shelf, where birds pick small fish and invertebrates from the surface in flight or while swimming; sometimes in harbours, bays and around fishing boats. After storms rarely also on the coast or inland.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Mainly off the west coast of Baja California and in the northern Gulf of California, in varying numbers. Further south along the Pacific coast and on the Gulf coast rare, with single records as far as Costa Rica and Panama and a few inland in northern Mexico. Outside the guide area the species breeds on rocky coasts of the northern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and adjoining Arctic seas, and winters at sea south to California and West Africa.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Pelagic trips and seawatching off Baja California in winter offer the best chance, especially after storms. The all-black wingtips without white in adults and the black M in juveniles are the best features.
Conservation status
Vulnerable. The world population has declined sharply since the 1970s, especially in the Atlantic part of the range, through changes in food supply at sea linked to warming sea water, and through bycatch. In the guide area a scarce winter visitor.
Scientific name
Rissa tridactyla | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Larus tridactylus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Rissa was introduced in 1826 by Stephens. Rissa goes back to the Icelandic rita, the local name for the black-legged kittiwake. tridactyla is Greek for 'three-toed', from tri- 'three' and daktylos 'toe': in this gull the hind toe is reduced to a stub. The specimen the first description was based on came from Great Britain.