Little Gull

Hydrocoloeus minutus

The little gull is a species of gull belonging to the family Laridae which is mainly found in the Palearctic with some small colonies in North America. It breeds on freshwater lakes and marshes, and spends winters at sea. It is the smallest species of gull in the world, and the only species in the monospecific genus Hydrocoloeus. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 917 times across 12 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the Little Gull on the live map

Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 11°C (typically 9 to 13°C, from 5 areas). That holds across 20° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 57°N in October to 68°N in June, about 1,200 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

Download every area as CSV

Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.