Appearance:

Recognized in all plumages by its rounded head, steep forehead, short neck and contrasting white belly. Males with brown head and light yellow forehead, pinkish breast and grey body. Adult males with big white patch on forewing. Female mostly brown with bluish bill. Tail rather long and pointed, and wings narrow. Quite pale underwings, but not completely white like American Wigeon.

Sound:

Male: a pleasant high pitched whistle "piiiiuuu", rapidly rising in pitch and then falling. Quite vocal. Female: a harsh "kraaa kraaa kraa" more like female diving-ducks than other dabbling-ducks.

Display-call male:

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 Patrick Åberg,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license

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