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:

Unmistakable in breeding plumage, with all dark/blackish body unique among Tringas. Most birds seen in Europe will probably be in winter- or juvenile plumage, and can then be mistaken for Redshanks. Spotted Redshanks are slimmer, longer legged and more elegant than Redshanks. The supercilium is much more prominent, the bill is slimmer and longer. Most diagnostic is the lack of white wing-bars, and the white sigar-shaped patch on the back. The barring in juveniles reaches from the belly and all the way back to the vent. Often feeds in deeper water than Redshanks, even by swimming and upending.

Sound:

Flight call loud and diagnostic, and is often the first sign of the species' presence; a sharp and short, disyllabic "koo-eett", with the first syllable falling in pitch and the second rising sharply. Display call a squeaky, but melodic "krroo-lee-ooo" repeated in cycles. Alarm call a falcon-like "ke-ke-ke-ke".

Flight calll, 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

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