Scientific name: Rissa tridactyla (Linnaeus, 1758)
Bird group: Gulls and Terns
Field characters. 39 cm. A medium-sized, short-legged gull with a tapering appearance due to long wings; easily recognisable by combination of short, black legs, slender uniform yellow bill and uniform black wing tips (without a trace of white) in flight. Mantle and wings are medium bluish grey; rest of plumage is pure white. Non-breeding adult has greyish wash on crown, hindneck and upper mantle, thus forming a faint hood; a dark grey ear-spot may be visible. Although the juvenile plumage is basically similar to that of the adults, it shows the following distinctive markings: black crescent in front of eye, dark grey ear-spot, broad black band across lower hindneck, black median wing coverts (forming band across folded wing), dark grey greater coverts with whitish margins, tertials streaked black and grey, almost entire outer wing black, and broad black subterminal tail-bar. In flight, each wing shows an inverted black "V". First winter Little Gull is smaller, and has a tern-like flight.
Voice. Its common name is an onomatopoeia of its most common call, a loud but rather pleasant "kitti-wa-a-k". Outside breeding season usually silent.
Distribution. Although it has a tendency to disperse, it is essentially a resident, which is fairly rare in the southern part of its range, and extremely common in the northern part.
Habitat. Essentially pelagic. Breeds predominantly on ledges of precipitous cliffs; occasionally also on buildings and, if undisturbed by humans, on flat stretches of rock or sand. Outside breeding season mainly found at sea.
Food. Predominantly fish and invertebrates, caught at sea, but also a wide variety of other foods, such as refuse, vegetable matter, insects and carrion.