Appearance:

Small, but bulky gull. Black hood with white crescents above and below eye, blood-red bill and legs in breeding plumage. The rest of the body seems all white at a distance. Wingtips pure white in adult birds. Chest deeper than in Black-headed gull, and wings fairly broad and rounded. In winter the black hood is largely lost, but dark streaking around, and at the back of the eye remains. Juveniles can be confused with juvenile Mew Gull (Common Gull), but note white under wing-coverts, pale grey band (greater coverts) across secondaries, black or reddish bill and more narrow terminal band of tail. Paler belly than Mew/Common Gull. Second year birds are similar to adult winter, but varying degrees of black markings remains on wing-tips.

Sound:

Distinct calls which can be identified even in mixed flocks. Most common call a short, mewing "yeah". Pitch rises and fall rapidly, with a "surprised" intonation. Timbre is nasal but clear and pure. Alarm call a series of short "ke-ke-ke", with similar timbre.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Creative Commons,www.xeno-canto.org,Patrik Åberg,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Appearance:

Large Tringa with upcurved bill. The mainly white and pale grey plumage (and head) gives it a pale appearance. Upper parts speckled in black in summer plumage. Upper side of wings rather dark, back lighter grey with conspicuous long white wedge. Tail white, with diffuse grey barring. Back of juveniles with v-shaped scales/fringes. Legs greenish to grey-green. Wing beats quite deep and sometimes with "slow motion" like quality.

Sound:

Most heard is a characteristic, trisyllabic "tew-tew-tew" (sometimes two or four syllables). Can resemble redshank, but pitch more stable, and not falling notably. Each syllable is clearly separated and equally emphasized. Song a clear disyllabic "cloo-eeee", repeated in cycles but each phrase clearly separated. At close range a short creaky sound is audible (between each phrase). Redshank may sing in a slightly similar way, but in continuous, linked phrases.

Flight call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Sonnenburg, Licence,Link.