Sabine's Gull - BirdForum Opus

Photo by darrenward
Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK, June 2003

Xema sabini

Identification

33-36 cm
A small, fork-tailed gull, with black primaries and triangular white patch on rear edge of wing. Hood dark in breeding plumage. Bill black with yellow tip. Immature lacks dark hood but can be distinguished by forked tail and striking wing pattern.

Sabine's Gulls have a complete moult in spring before starting the migration north and a partial moult in fall after arrival in the wintering waters off Africa as seen on offshore trips.

Photo by Glen Tepke
Pacific west of Carmel, California, USA, August 2003

Distribution

North America, Canada, Eurasia and Greenland, Africa.

Taxonomy

Subspecies^[1]

• X. s. palaearctica:

• Spitsbergen east to Taymyr Peninsula and Lena Delta

• X. s. tschuktschorum:

• Chukotsk Peninsula (Russia)

• X. s. woznesenskii:

• North-eastern Siberia to Alaska

• X. s. sabini:

• Northern Canada to Greenland; winters south-western Africa and north-western South America

Juvenile
Photo by Steve Messick
Jackson Lake S.P., Morgan County Colorado, September 2004

Habitat

Coasts and tundra.

Behaviour

Breeding

The 2-3 spotted olive brown eggs are laid in a ground nest, lined with grass.

Diet

The diet includes a wide variety of mainly animal food, and will eat any suitable small prey. It will also predate eggs from nesting colonies of Arctic Terns.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Sabine's Gull. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 16 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Sabine%27s_Gull

External Links

Search for photos of Sabine's Gull in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1