Bonaparte’s Gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia

Bonaparte’s Gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia. Photographs taken in the greater Los Cabos area of Baja California Sur, March 2017 and March 2018.

Bonaparte’s Gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, December 2016. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Bonaparte’s Gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia, is a member of the Laridae Family of Gulls, Terns and Skimmers. They are mid-sized in stature. In Mexico they are winter visitors found in the coastal regions within the Atlantic Slope from Tamaulipas to the northeast Yucatán Peninsula, in the central states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Nuevo León and within the Pacific Slope in Baja California and Baja California Sur and from Sonora to Nayarit at elevations up to 600 m (2,000 feet). From a conservation perspective Bonaparte’s Gull is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are found on lakes, rivers, marshes, coastal bays and harbors, sandbars, and mudflats, and beaches along coasts. They are opportunistic feeders eating a wide range of invertebrates and fish and limited amounts of insects.