Appearance:

Unmistakable. Grey, cliff-climbing bird with long, thin and curved bill. Wings with colourful pattern in carmine red, black and white spots. Habitually flicks wings when foraging (see videolink below), but still hard to spot when not flying. Flight jerky and butterfly-like, and also recalls Hoopoe. Wings appear dark from below, except for white pearls on primaries. Male with blackish throat in breeding season.

Sound:

Alarm call a thin trilling "vuiirrrrrrr". Flight call one or several soft whistles, often with (very) short trill as attack or tail. Song variable in length, but main characteristic a sequence of 4-6 long, ascending whistles with timbre recalling whistling kettle. More complex and varied phrases are mixed with the long whistles. Both male and female sings.

Song:

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

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Philippe Legay, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:gilgit2, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

Yellow legs, black to dark grey back (regional variations) and black primaries with only small white spots. Generally more slender than Herring Gull and Great Black-backed, with longer and more narrow wings, and longer legs. Winter plumage with streaked head and neck. Underside of flight feathers smoky grey. Juveniles very variable, but generally darker than Herring Gulls. Young birds with completely dark inner primaries and broad terminal band to tail.

Sound:

Very similar to Herring Gull, but tone more nasal.

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 Peter Boesman,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license