Alternate Adult is crisply plumaged, with white underparts, gray wings and back, black wingtips with white spots at rest, black legs, clean black head, broken white eye ring, and deep red bill with black spot at tip. Underparts are sometimes tinted pink. In flight, black wingtips are surrounded by white. Basic Adult has broken black hood with white throat and forehead, and black bill. First-winter birds have brownish wing feathers and less white in wingtips. Laughing Gull has longer, heavier bill, less white on wingtips, longer wings, and less white around eye in all plumages.

Length: 37 (cm) Wingspan: 91 (cm)

Voice:

Nasal, hollow, single notes, often given in flight.

Habitat:

Breeds on inland ponds, wetlands, and marshy fields. In South America, winters along coastlines and estuaries.

Behavior:

Breeds colonially; nest is a floating platform anchored to reeds. Often commutes in loose flocks from colony to foraging locations.

Feeding:

Omnivorous; eats a variety of insects, fish and other aquatic organisms, small mammals, plant material, and garbage. Forages by walking along ground; often seen spread in flocks over fields. May follow agricultural equipment to capitalize on stirred-up prey.