Bonaparte's gull

Description:

This is the breeding plumage of the Bonaparte's gull and is the smallest of the hooded gulls in North America. The adult has gray upperparts and white underparts and a striking black hood and wingtips. Its short, thin bill is black, and its legs are orangish-red.

Habitat:

Spotted on the beach at low tide at Discovery Park in Seattle, Wa.

Notes:

Like most gulls, Bonaparte's gull has a varied diet, with prey items changing over the course of the year, and from year to year. During the breeding season, it is largely insectivorous. It is known to quickly congregate in large numbers to take advantage of termite dispersal flights, circling over the emerging swarm and hovering briefly to take the insects in flight. It also gathers in large numbers to feed on the eggs of spawning salmon, alighting on the water and, if necessary, diving to take drifting eggs. During migration and into the winter, insects are first supplemented, then replaced by other food items, including fish, small crustaceans, mollusks, euphausiids, marine worms, and other invertebrates. At least one immature bird has been recorded as having fed on walnut meat. Bonaparte's gulls are known to engage in kleptoparasitism, and have been observed stealing earthworms from foraging dunlins and black-bellied plovers.