Appearance:

Small and agile gull with all black wing-tips, black legs (adults) and yellow bill. Area close to wing-tips much paler than rest of wings, and often visible at surprisingly long range (more so than the black tips). Adult winter with grey neck and black half-collar. Juveniles with black zig-zag pattern to wings, resembling pattern seen in Little Gull, Ross's Gull and Sabine's Gull. Differs from those in; no dark bar on secondaries, underparts of wing white, back grey, black on primaries reaches wing-tip. Flight action different from larger gulls; fast, stiff wing-beats and elegant maneuvering even in strong winds.

Sound:

Highly vocal at breeding ground. A mewing "kitti-wake", with the pitch rising on the second drawn out syllable, and then falling. Generally silent elsewhere, except when squabbling over food.

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

Sounds:Recorded by Stein Ø. Nilsen,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license

Appearance:

Breeding adult easily identified by white tail/rump combined with jet black under wing coverts and silvery upper wing. Immature with brownish back contrasting with pale, silvery upper wings and pale rump. Broad white collar, and lacks dark breast patch of immature Black Tern. Adult winter most liable to confusion with other terns, but upperparts much paler than Black Tern. Contrasting dark outer primaries and secondaries to rest of wing. Often retains some black under coverts even in winter which is diagnostic if seen. Slightly more compact than Black Tern and often recalls Little gull in shape. Bill noticeably shorter and thinner than in Whiskered Tern.

Sound:

Mostly silent away from breeding ground. Most diagnostic call a dry, rolling "krrrrrr-ta-ta" where the rolling is followed by one or two accentuated syllables, or just simply "krrrrrr". Used in excitement.

Call:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

CC

CC-sound:Marco Dragonetti, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Dick Hoek, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Lars Buckx, Licence,Link.