LAUGHING GULL

 803*                   LAUGHING GULL                     Leucophaeus atricilla

USA                  40

The laughing gull is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named for its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America.

LAUGHING GULL

In non-breeding plumage, photographed at Venus Bay, South Australia, August 2016

803      LAUGHING GULL         Lares atricilla

Australia         (647)

Found on coasts, tidal flats. 36-40 cm.; span 1.05 cm. Breeds coastal e. N. America, and California: migrates to ne. Brazil and down Pacific coast to n. Chile. Vagrant to Hawaii, Samoa, elsewhere in Oceania. Sighted in Cairns, and in 2016 Venus Bay (SA). Vagrant.