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Franklin's Gull | Leucophaeus pipixcan
Franklins meeuw | Gaviota de Franklin
Franklin's Gull breeds in marshes on the prairies of inland North America and winters along the west coast of South America. In the guide area it is mainly a passage migrant, moving along the Pacific coast in spring and autumn in flocks of hundreds to thousands of birds. It is one of few gulls that moult twice a year.
Voice
Calls little away from the breeding grounds. Calls are softer and less harsh than those of Laughing Gull: a nasal kuk and a high wee-ah.
Recording: Dante Buzzetti — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
32–36 cm, compact, with a rounded head and a fairly short bill. Adults have a dark slate-grey mantle and a white band between the grey of the wing and the black wingtip, which itself has broad white tips. In breeding plumage the head is black with broad white eye-crescents, the bill red and the breast often tinged pink; in non-breeding plumage a dark half-hood remains on the hindcrown, with conspicuous white eye-crescents. First-year birds have a grey mantle, brownish wings, a dark half-hood, white underparts and a black tail band that leaves the outer tail feathers white.
Confusion species
Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla is larger, with a longer, drooping bill, narrower eye-crescents, black wingtips without a white band and in non-breeding plumage only a grey wash on the head; first-year Laughing Gulls have a greyish-brown breast and a complete tail band. Bonaparte's Gull Chroicocephalus philadelphia is smaller and paler grey, with a white leading edge to the primaries.
Habitat
On migration mainly along the coast: beaches, inshore waters, mudflats and lagoons, where flocks rest and feed over the sea. In inland Mexico also lakes, reservoirs, rice fields and flooded fields, where the birds catch insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
On migration along the entire Pacific coast, from Sonora and Sinaloa to Panama, and in spring also through the interior of north-eastern Mexico and along the Gulf coast. In winter a few along the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America. Scarce on the Caribbean coast of Central America. Outside the guide area the species breeds on the prairies of Canada and the northern United States and winters mainly along the coast of Peru and Chile.
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In April and May and in October and November, sometimes thousands of birds pass along the Pacific coast, for instance at the Gulf of Nicoya or in the Bay of Panama. In flight the white band before the black wingtip is the best feature.
Conservation status
Not threatened globally. The population is large but fluctuates strongly with water levels in the prairie marshes. In the guide area a passage migrant with no breeding population.
Scientific name
Leucophaeus pipixcan | (Wagler, 1831)
Wagler described the species in 1831 as Larus Pipixcan; 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'. pipixcan is a Nahuatl name for a kind of gull. The specimen the first description was based on came from Mexico.