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Bonaparte's Gull

Chroicocephalus philadelphia

Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers
Bonaparte's Gull, photographed by Wildreturn

Photo: Wildreturn · Wikimedia · CC-BY 2.0 (licence)

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Call and song

About the Bonaparte's Gull

The most common small gull through most of North America, especially inland. Breeding adults have a black head, thin white eye arcs, bright red legs, light gray upperparts, and black wingtips. Note distinctive wing pattern on adults in flight: white wedge on the leading edge of the wing, with small black tips on the outer wing feathers. Nonbreeding adults and immatures have pinkish legs and a mostly white head with black ear spot. Immatures are more heavily marked with brown and black on the wings. Breeds near water in boreal forest; the only gull that makes a stick nest in a tree. Often seen in large flocks along beaches, bays, coves, and lakes during migration and winter. Feeds on small fish and invertebrates, often gracefully fluttering around and picking them off the water surface.

Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made

Where it has been recorded

Recorded in 50 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.

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