Laughing Gull

Leucophaeus atricilla

The laughing gull is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named from its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. Two subspecies are accepted, L. a. atricilla, which occurs from the West Indies to the Venezuelan islands, and L. a. megalopterus, which occurs from southeast Canada down to Central America. The laughing gull was long placed in the genus Larus until its present placement in Leucophaeus. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 20,133 times across 21 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 24°C (typically 14 to 26°C, from 12 areas). That range is wide, so temperature alone does not explain when it turns up.

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.

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