Laughing Gull

Additional Bird Information Gulls Shorebirds Types of Birds

The solid colored, dark head feathers of the Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) in summer plumage, often described as a hood, makes is difficult to mistake it for any other North American Larus species.

The picture shows the Laughing Gull in winter plumage, with a prominent white eye ring and dark legs and a minimal dark patch of feathers on an otherwise white head.

Laughing Gulls are primarily a new world, neotropical species, with a population spread along the southern coast of the United States, south to the northern coastal areas of South America.

Like other gull species, they are colony nesters that extend their range along the Northeast Atlantic Coast during summer breeding season.

© 2009 Patricia A. Michaels