Scientific name: Larus sabini Sabine 1819
Bird group: Gulls and Terns
Field characters. 27-32 cm. Long-winged gull with a tern-like flight. Adult in summer plumage has characteristic wing-pattern of black outer primaries, white triangle on inner primaries and secondaries and grey inner-wing coverts and mantle; head dark-grey; tail shallowly forked (but often difficult to see). Birds in winter lose dark hood, but retain speckled eye-patch and nape. Juveniles have black-brown outer primaries and grey-brown mantle. May be confused with juvenile Kittiwake at longer distances.
Voice. On breeding grounds "k-year"; alarm call "kekekek"; silent in rest of year.
Distribution. Only breeds in small numbers on Spitsbergen in W Palearctic; main distribution arctic N America. Winters at sea off west coasts of Africa; migrates in small numbers along coasts of W Europe.
Habitat. Breeds on marshy tracts or tundra of arctic coastal lowland; pelagic in rest of year.
Food. Invertebrates and fish; during breeding season also insects and their larvae and (occasionally) eggs, young birds, and carrion.