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, except in areas where it coexists with Short-toed Treecreeper. Differs from said species in pure white flanks (sub-species macrodactyla has faintly buff flanks but not as marked as in Short-toed), shorter and only moderately curved bill, hind-claw as long as hind-toe and "notched" wing-bar (uneven "steps"). Tips of primaries with buffish/white tips/fringes extending along inner web. Mostly distinguished from Short-toed by call, and identification exclusively by plumage characters difficult in areas where both species occur.

Sound:

Contact call a drawn, high-pitched "tzreeee". Similar to Goldcrest in timbre, but of longer duration with a vibrating and slightly rolling tone. Generally repeated in evenly paced, slow series (unlike Goldcrest). Song a short, continuous three-part phrase. Each phrase starts with a few contact call-like notes followed by a Willow Warbler-like descending part, which then jumps to a few descending high notes to form a marked conclusion. Note that "mixed singers" are not uncommon in areas where both species of treecreepers occur.

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