Bad Weather Brings Bonaparte’s Gulls With It

The Bermuda Audubon Society reports today [Mar. 9] that the wild weather currently buffeting the island has brought a number of unexpected visitors along with it in the form of Bonaparte’s Gulls.

The smallest gull seen over most of North America, the Bonaparte’s Gull is often described as delicate and tern-like in flight.

This gull has narrow wings, a slender, black, pin-like bill, and pink legs. It has a light slate-gray back, with a black line down the trailing edge of the outer wing, and a white belly. The leading edges on the upper surfaces of the outer wing are white.

A Bonaparte’s Gull seen at Spittal Pond this morning

Their breeding habitat is near bogs or lakes in coniferous forest across western Canada and Alaska. They nest in conifers, sometimes on the ground.

They are migratory and most move east or west to coastal waters, also the Great Lakes. They are rare vagrants to western Europe, where they usually associate with the somewhat larger Black-headed Gulls.

They were named after Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a zoologist and nephew of the French Emperor Napoleon.

One of two Bonaparte’s Gulls spotted flying over Harrington Sound

Photographs courtesy of the Bermuda Audubon Society

#Birds

Category: All, Environment