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Leucophaeus atricilla
Size & Shape Laughing Gulls are medium-sized gulls with fairly long wings and long legs that impart a graceful look when they are flying or walking. They have stout, fairly long bills. Color Pattern Laughing Gulls are medium gray above and white below. Summer adults have a crisp black hood, white arcs around the eye, and a reddish bill. In winter, the hood becomes a blurry gray mask on a white head. The legs are reddish black to black. Immatures are much browner and more subtly patterned than adults; they take 2-3 years to gain adult plumage.
Laughing Gulls are a coastal species and are only occasionally seen very far inland. Look for them in plowed fields, garbage dumps, parking lots, and shorelines. They nest, often in large numbers, on islands near the shore but safely isolated from terrestrial predators.
3 Comments
Thanks Liam, was just wondering :-)
Black-headed Gull have red legs and are not found on the Georgia coast (although ironically, a vagrant Black-headed Gull was found near Savannah last January).
Looks a lot like a Black-Headed Gull, Scientific name: Chroicocephalus ridibundus.