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Laughing gull
Leucophaeus atricilla
21.2338, -86.7331
Field Notes
Description:
This species is easy to identify. It is 36–41 cm (14–16 in) long with a 98–110 cm (39–43 in) wingspan. The summer adult's body is white apart from the dark grey back and wings and black head. Its wings are much darker grey than all other gulls of similar size except the smaller Franklin's Gull, and they have black tips without the white crescent shown by Franklin's. The beak is long and red. The black hood is mostly lost in winter.
Habitat:
It breeds on the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. Northernmost populations migrate further south in winter, and this species occurs as a rare vagrant to western Europe (e.g. they can be seen in Alicante, Spain, especially in the winter).
They breed in coastal marshes and ponds in large colonies.
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