Laughing Gull

The Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. It is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger with a laugh-like call. It breeds in vast colonies mostly along the Caribbean, North American Atlantic coast, and northern South American continent. The two subspecies are L. a. megalopterus – which can be seen from southeast Canada down to Central America and L. a. atricilla which appears from the West Indies to the Venezuelan islands. The laughing gull was long placed in the genus Larus until its present placement in Leucophaeus, which follows the American Ornithologists' Union.

It is simple to recognize this species. Its size ranges from 36 to 41 cm in length, 98 to 110 cm in wingspan, and 203 to 371g in weight. With the exception of its black head, dark-grey wings, and white body, summer adults are all white. Its wings are a much darker grey than all other gulls of similar size except the smaller Franklin's gull, and they have black tips without the white crescent shown by Franklin's. It has a long, red beak. In the winter, the black hood is mostly gone.