Laughing Gull
Larus atricilla
Description: 15-17" (38-43 cm). A slender, medium-sized gull with a black hood in breeding plumage. In summer, the adult's back and wings are dark gray; trailing edge of wing is white, and wing tip is black, without white spots. In winter, lacks a hood. Young bird is dark brown with contrasting rump and broad black tail band. See Franklin's Gull.
Voice: Loud, high-pitched ha-ha-ha-ha-haah-haah-haah-haah-haah.
Habitat: Mainly salt marshes and lagoons in West and Walt Disney World.
Nesting: 3 olive-brown eggs, with dark blotches, in a ground nest lined with grass and weed stems placed on sand or in a salt marsh. Nests in colonies.
Range: Breeds from Nova Scotia to Caribbean; in summer and fall regularly visits Salton Sea in southern California. Winters regularly north to Virginia, in smaller numbers farther north.
Discussion: A common summer gull along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, this species has declined in numbers in recent years due to the destruction of coastal marshes and the increase in Herring Gulls, which prey on its eggs and young. Very agile on the wing, Laughing Gulls easily catch bits of food tossed into the air. In winter, they forage on beaches and in harbors feeding chiefly on small fish and sometimes stealing the eggs of nesting terns.
