Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus
Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus, Juvenile. Bird photographed within the coastal region of Cancún, Quintana Roo, March 2021. Photograph and identifications courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.
Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus, Non Breeding Wintering. Photographs taken off the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, December 2020. Photographs and identification courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus. Birds photographed off the beach in San José del Cabo, Baja California Sur, March 2016.
Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus. Bird photographed in coastal waters off Marco Island, Florida, February 2019.
Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus. Birds photographed in Parque National Huatulco, Huatulco, Oaxaca, March 2021. Photographs and identifications courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.
Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus. Birds photographed within the coastal region of Cancún, Quintana Roo, March 2021. Photographs and identifications courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.
Background and Identification
The Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla megalopterus, is one of two subspecies of Laughing Gull, and the only one found in Mexico. They are a member of the Laridae Family of Gulls, Terns and Skimmers, which has nine-nine members placed in thirty-three genera, and one of five global species of the Leucophaeus Genus. They are known in Mexico as gaviota guanguanre. They are named for the laughing-like call.
The Laughing Gull is medium in stature. The sexes are similar. The breeding birds are easy to recognize due to their black hood, their dark eyes ringed with narrow white eye-crescents and their dark gray silky mantles. The non-breeding birds, and the prominent birds seen wintering in Mexico and pictured above, they are duller in colorations and have white heads with blackish marking from the nape and ear coverts to just in front on the eyes with a broad black subterminal tail band. Their iris is dark brown, their legs vary with age from dark brown to reddish to black.
Habitat and Geographical Range
The Laughing Gull nest in small salt marsh islands in areas within sandy and rocky shores that are void of permanent mammalian populations and can be found in colonies of up to 25,000 pairs. They frequent bays, coastal lagoons, estuaries, garbage dumps, harbors, landfills, lakes, rivers, streams, and mowed fields around airports. The feed on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, seasonal berries, carrion, crustaceans, fish, and garbage. They roost on inland lakes, bays, and estuaries as well-as the open ocean. They are known for the displays they put on in a courtship dance. They make annual migrations from northern latitudes for wintering in Mexico averaging 2,100 to 3,000 km. They have life spans of up to nineteen years.
In Mexico they winter along the Atlantic Coast from Tamaulipas and eastern Nuevo León south to Belize, along the west coast of Baja California Sur, along the Pacific Coast from Colima south to Guatemala, and in the interior from Durango and San Luis Potosí south to Guatemala. They are the predominant pelagic wintering species in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Common Misidentifications
The Laughing Gull can be easily confused with Franklin’s Gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan (found within the central Mexican Highlands and throughout southern Mexico, smaller in stature, shorter head, bill and legs and shorter more pointed wings).
Conservation Status
From a conservation perspective the Laughing Gull is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They survive well in the presence of humans but are susceptible to human disturbance, including egg collectors and use by the millinery trade, nest disturbances and mammalian predation throughout its breeding cycle. Their eggs were utilized by Native Americans for food for centuries. In Mexico, human disturbance accounts for 15% of nest failures. They are also a known risk to aviation and their large flocks have been culled around some of the major airports such as John F. Kennedy in New York City.