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Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus) German name(s): "Zwergmöwe" Size: 24-28 cm; wing span: 62-69 cm Body mass: 70-160 g

Europe: Family Group 10 Family Group 10 Table Great Skua Arctic Skua Pomarine Skua Caspian Gull Great Black-backed Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull American Herring Gull European Herring Gull Yellow-legged Gull Audouin's Gull Slender-billed Gull Iceland Gull Common Gull Ring-billed Gull Black-headed Gull Bonaparte's Gull Mediterranean Gull Little Gull Sabine's Gull Black-legged Kittiwake Caspian Tern Sandwich Tern Gull-billed Tern Common Tern Arctic Tern Little Tern Forster's Tern Whiskered Tern Black Tern White-winged Black Tern Atlantic Puffin Razorbill Common Guillemot Black Guillemot Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names European birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Little Gulls are the smallest gulls. The two sexes are identical, but they have different plumages during the breeding season and in eclipse. In breeding plumage, the head is all-black. The relatively short neck, the entire front and the rump and tail are white. Only the mantle and upperwings are light-grey. When folded, only the black ends with white tips of the primaries show, but in flight the entire trailing edge of the upperwing is white and the underwings are grey at the front, dark-grey to near-black towards the back, where there is a sharp contrast with a white trailing edge. The short legs are red. In eclipse the plumage, except for a small dark cap and a patch behind the ear coverts, turns white. The rest remains unchanged. The bill remains black, but the legs and feet turn fleshy-pink. Second-winter birds have paler underwings than adults and black streaks on the upperside of the primaries. First-winter Little Gulls have a prominent black upperwing bar and a black terminal band on the uppertail. Otherwise immature Little Gulls resemble adults in eclipse. Juveniles have a black-and-grey mottled back and a grey mantle, and a black terminal band on the uppertail. The underparts are white.

Taxonomy, classification See Little Gull at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Little Gull is available HERE . Little Gulls are a migratory species. Their breeding grounds are in north-eastern Europe, including north-western Russia, and in central eastern Asia. While the western populations overwinter around the Atlantic, North Sea, Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian Sea coastal fringes, the eastern population overwinters along the North-east coast of China. There is also a small breeding population in North America, part of which breeds in the area of the Great Lakes, while the rests stays on the South coast of Hudson Bay, Canada. These populations overwinter along the East coast of the US, from the Carolinas to the border with Canada. Little Gulls are found in different parts of Europe, depending on season. Their breeding ground are in the freshwater marshes around the lakes of Finland, down through the Baltic countries into Bielorussia and into northern Ukraine. They are also found in western Russia, down to northern Kazakhstan. They overwinter anywhere along the southern coastline of the Baltic Sea, around the North Sea (including the northern and eastern seaboard of the British Isles), down the European Atlantic coastline, and all around Iberia into the western Mediterranean. They are absent from the major Mediterranean islands, Italy and the Adriatic Sea, but Little Gulls are found in Greece and around eastern Mediterranean coastline to northern Egypt. Little Gulls breed in small colonies in freshwater marshes. Only outside the breeding season they prefer to stay along coastlines and on coastal waters.

Sightings Click here for sighting information G. Pinelas reports spotting Little Gulls in non-breeding plumage on Dafundo beach, Oeiras, Portugal, in November 2017. J. Pires found Little Gulls on Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, in January 2023. A. Sarok spotted a Little Gull in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

NON-BREEDING

Near-frontal view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Dafundo beach, Oeiras, Portugal, November 2017]

Near-lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Dafundo beach, Oeiras, Portugal, November 2017]

Near-lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Dafundo beach, Oeiras, Portugal, November 2017]

Lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage; with their webbed feet they are strong swimmers - note the bow wave the bird is producing (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage, here with a view of its underwing (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage, lying very low in the water (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage, lying very low in the water and calling (maybe "clear prop"?)... (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

... before taking off (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Dorsal view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage, here with a view of its underwing (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Near-frontal view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Near-frontal view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Near-frontal/ventral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Near-lateral view of a Little Gull in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Near-lateral view of a first-winter Little Gull in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Near-lateral view of a first-winter Little Gull in flight (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Near-lateral/ventral view of a first-winter Little Gull in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Lateral/ventral view of a first-winter Little Gull in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal

Mobility: Migratory

Elementary unit: Solitary/mob

Food, Diet

Little Gull in non-breeding plumage picking water bugs off the water surface (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Morraceira island, Figueira da Foz, Mondego estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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