Africa Wild

320. Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla (Swartpootbrandervoël)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae



Description
Medium-sized gull. Length: 38-41 cm. Wingspan: 91-97 cm. Adults have silver grey backs and upperwings with black tips to the primaries. Head, tail and underparts are white. Bill is yellow unmarked. Legs black.
Breeding adults have a narrow ring of red around the eye.
Outside of the breeding season, the adult black-legged kittiwake has darker grey marks around the crown and the back of the neck, and a dark mark behind the eye.
Juvenile with white underparts, gray back, gray patches on nape and crown, dark spot at the ears, black collar, black wingtips, and a dark bar across the wing. Wings show a dark "M" pattern in flight. Tail white with a black tip. Legs black.

Distribution
A Northern Hemisphere species which is a rare vagrant to the sub-region. Breeds on sea cliffs and buildings along the coasts of the North Atlantic and North Pacific between 40-80° North, dispersing across the oceans of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a rare vagrant to southern Africa, recorded twice of the coast of the south-western Cape, while it was once sighted ashore at Hermanus, Western Cape in November 1987.

Habitat
Inshore and offshore waters.

Diet
Fish, shrimps and copepods.

Breeding
Does not breed in the sub-region.
Adult Black-legged Kittiwakes return to the breeding grounds from January, but breeding does not take place until May and June. More southerly colonies tend to breed earlier, and breeding activity may be delayed by periods of cold weather. The Black-legged Kittiwake typically nests in huge colonies, which may occasionally number over 100,000 pairs. The nests are tightly packed, sometimes even touching, and are constructed by both the male and female from compacted mud, feathers, vegetation and seaweed. This species usually builds its nests on such narrow ledges that the adults and chicks barely fit, and often have to face toward the cliff with their tails hanging over the edge. The female lays 1 to 3 eggs, which are incubated by both adults for 24 to 28 days. The chicks fledge at about 34 to 58 days old. After breeding, the birds leave the breeding ground from July to August, and the young remain at sea for the first few years of life, not returning to breed until they are three to five years old.

Call
A loud Kitt-e-wake. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Very rare vagrant off the Cape. The Black-legged Kittiwake is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.

320. Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla (Swartpootbrandervoël)




Feeding on shrimp brought to the surface by Humpback Whales.

Links:
ARKive
Oiseaux net

318. Sabine’s Gull Xema sabini (Mikstertmeeu)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Description
27-32 cm. A small gull with with a buoyant, tern-like flight. The boldly tricoloured upperwing and shallowly forked, white tail are diagnostic.
In breeding plumage, it has a dark grey, almost black, hood and a black bill tipped yellow.
Non-breeding adult and immature lack black hood, but have a dark patch on nape and hindneck.
Young birds have a similar tricoloured wing pattern, but the grey is replaced by brown, and the tail has a black terminal band. The juveniles take two years to attain full adult plumage.

Distribution
Mainly breeds in high Arctic above 60° North in Eurasia and North America, travelling south in the non-breeding season to southern oceans to the Pacific coast of South America as well as the entire cold, western coast of Africa. Within southern Africa it is common offshore of Namibia and western South Africa, while more scarce along the southern coast up to KwaZulu-Natal.

Habitat
Pelagic. It spends most of its time out to sea on the continental shelf, and is rarely seen ashore.

Movements and migrations
Mainly present in southern Africa in the period from September-May, although it very rarely stays over winter.
Sabine's Gulls breeding in eastern Canada and Greenland leave in August and early September, fly southeastward across the Atlantic Ocean in the direction of the Iberian Peninsula, and then head south offshore of the west coast of Africa. Southward passage past West Africa occurs from late August into November. The non-breeding area of most of these birds lies in the Benguela Upwelling System, between 18S and 35S, off the coast of Namibia and South Africa. East of Cape Agulhas it becomes increasingly scarce, and is a vagrant off Mozambique. Vagrants occur as far south as the Prince Edward Islands. It occurs in continental waters out to the shelf edge, from 2 km to 150 km offshore. Numbers build up here from late September onwards. Departure is mainly by the end of April, with smaller numbers in May, and a few stragglers overwintering. The main northward passage past West Africa is in the first half of May. Arrival on the breeding grounds in Greenland and eastern Canada is in June.

Diet
It mainly eats small fish, marine invertebrates and offal and discards from fishing vessels, doing most of its foraging by plucking prey or food scraps from the sea surface, or upending to catch animals at a greater depth.

Breeding
The Sabine's Gull breeds in colonies on coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a ground nest lined with grass.

Call
High-pitched chattering vihihihi. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common summer visitor offshore.

318. Sabine’s Gull Xema sabini, Larus sabini (Mikstertmeeu)


Breeding adults



Links:
Sabap2
Oiseaux net - Mouette de Sabine
Avian Demography Unit

Slender-billed Gull Chroicocephalus genei (Dunbekmeeu)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Description
Length 42-44 cm. Wingspan 102-110 cm. The Slender-billed Gull is most easily identified by its distinctive profile, with a long, sloping forehead and a long, slightly drooping beak, for which it is named. The head, neck, rump and tail are white, while the back and the upper surfaces of the wings are grey, with a white leading edge to the wings and black tips to the outer primary feathers. The underparts are white, sometimes with a rosy tinge. The slender-billed gull has long, blackish-red legs, a dark red beak, and yellowish-white eyes, with a red eye ring.
Outside the breeding season, the slender-billed gull sometimes has a small, dusky spot on the side of the head.
The juvenile has greyish markings on its head, and immature birds have darker markings on the wings and more pink-orange legs than the adults.
This species can sometimes be confused with the Black-headed Gull, but is distinguished by its more angular, sloping head, longer bill, white rather than black head during the breeding season, and slightly larger size.

Distribution
Breeds in patches coastal and inland from Senegal to eastern Kazakhstan and India, while scarce in Africa, occurring along the far western coast and in East Africa. It is a rare vagrant to South Africa, where it is only been sighted once, in full breeding plumage at Durban Bay, KwaZulu-Natal in the period from 10-13 September 1999.

Habitat
It generally prefers shelter lagoons and embayments along the coast and large rivers further inland.

Diet
It mainly eats fish and aquatic invertebrates, hunting either by swimming through the water and plucking prey from the surface or by running quickly through shallow water, all the while 'ploughing' with its bill.

Breeding
Breeding usually takes place between March and May, in large colonies which may number thousands of pairs and sometimes include other species such as terns. The nests are closely packed, and are usually a scrape or shallow depression on open mud, or occasionally in vegetation, sometimes with some plant material, feathers and other objects added. The slender-billed gull lays 2 to 3 eggs, which hatch after around 22 days. The chicks of this species gather into crèches, and are led towards the sea by the adults, although the chicks are not able to fly until around 30 to 37 days old.

Call
Harsh low-pitched krerrr. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Rare vagrant. One record from Durban. The Slender-billed Gull is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.

Slender-billed Gull Chroicocephalus genei (Dunbekmeeu)



Links:
ARKive

319. Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Swartkopmeeu)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Description
Length: 35-39 cm. Wingspan: 86-99 cm. Weight: 200-400 g. Distinguishing features include the prominent white leading edge of the upper wing, which is visible from a fair distance, the tern-like slender wings and the reddish coloured bill and legs.
Breeding: The common name of this species is inaccurate, as adult Black-headed Gulls have a chocolate-brown hood that extends to hind crown and partial white eye-ring. The bill is dark with a black tip.
Non-breeding: Brown head markings greatly reduced with usually only a dark vertical smudge above eye, and from ear coverts to crown. The large white wegde in the outerwing and the whitish (not grey) underwings are diagnostic. The dark tipped red bill is paler.
Juveniles are different in appearance to adults; they have ginger-brown coloured upperparts and less black on the much paler underwing, a yellowish bill with a black tip and paler legs.
Similar species: The adult has a smaller body and bill than Grey-headed Gull and is is paler grey above, with a dark brown-black hood. In non-breeding plumage is distinguished by the large wedge of white on the outer wing and the whitish, not grey underwing. It has smaller eye-ring than Franklin’s Gull. Franklin’s Gull is always much darker above with black (not brown) on the head.

Distribution
Mainly breeds between 30-65° North, from southern Greenland east to China and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, heading south in the non-breeding season to the coast of the South China Sea and Africa, from West Africa to Eritrea south to Uganda and Kenya. Non-breeding visitor to entire SA coastline and some internal areas. It is a rare vagrant to the central Namibian coast, Caprivi Strip (Namibia), north-central Zimbabwe, central Mozambique and the Cape Peninsula; it has been sighted twice in Gauteng.

Habitat
Most records from coastal wetlands, less often open coast. Forages away from water in north Africa and Europe, but not in South Africa.

Diet
Mainly aquatic and terrestrial insects; also fish.

Breeding
This gull has a wide global breeding range that extends through the Palaearctic. After returning to its colonies between late February and late March, it lays its eggs in late April and May. They nest in colonies, within which pairs defend small territories. They will defend these territories from other birds using ritualised displays. Normally the nest is formed from a scrape in the ground but may be on a pile of dead plant material. The glossy eggs are a light greenish-blue with dark blotches. Two to three eggs are produced which are incubated for up to 26 days. Both adults incubate the eggs and feed the young. After a further 35 days the chicks will have fledged.

Call
This is a noisy species during the breeding season, producing a loud kwarr call, fairly similar to Grey-hooded Gull, and a short kwup. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Rare summer vagrant to South Africa, most records are for July-January in immature or sub-adult plumage. The black-headed gull is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.

319. Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Swartkopmeeu)

© Dewi
Non-breeding plumage

© Dewi
Winter plumage

© Mel
Breeding (summer) plumage

© nan
Juvenile

Links:
Sabap2
Oiseaux net
Animal Diversity Web

315. Grey-headed Gull Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus (Gryskopmeeu)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Description
48 cm. Sexes are alike. Has an extensive grey hood when breeding (head and mantle about same shade of grey). Bright red bill and legs, and pale yellow eyes.
Immature: As juv, but crown and back mottled ashy brown. Ear coverts brownish. Dusky eye crescent and ear covert spot indistinct.
Juvenile: Partial hood of grey-brown on crown, ear coverts, and upper nape. Dark eye crescent and ear covert spot. Hind neck whitish. Feathers of mantle, back and scapulars brown, fringed paler, appearing scaled. Rump pale grey. Tail white, with black subterminal band. Upper wing grey, brown anteriorly; outermost primaries and trailing edge black. Underwing dusky, flight feathers black. Underparts mostly white; sides of breast grey brown. Bill pinkish, with dark tip. Legs and feet dull red to brown.
Similar species: Breeding adult differs from the smaller Hartlaub's Gull in having a more extensive grey hood, a brighter red bill and legs, and pale yellow (not dark) eyes.
Juvenile, compared with juvenile Hartlaub's Gull, has more extensive smudges on the head, a dark-tipped, pink orange bill, darker upperwings and more black on its tail.

Distribution
South America and sub-Saharan Africa, with two separate populations in the continent, one in west Africa and the other extending from Sudan and Ethiopia south through Uganda, Tanzania, eastern DRC, Zambia and Angola to southern Africa. Within southern Africa it is fairly common in western and northern Namibia (including the Caprivi Strip), northern Botswana, north-western Zimbabwe, eastern Mozambique and central and southern South Africa.



Habitat
Open coast, and coastal and freshwater wetlands.

Diet
Aquatic and terrrestrial insects, molluscs, frogs and fish. Scavenges food from dumps.

Breeding
Monogamous and colonial. Breeds on islands, mostly in wetlands; nest usually a shallow bowl of plant material placed on the ground next to tuft of grass or other vegetation. Egg-laying season is mainly from July-October in Botswana and Zimbabwe, May-June in Gauteng and from February-November in KwaZulu-Natal. 1-3 eggs are laid and incubated by both sexes starting from the first egg.

Call
A harsh kraaa... Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common resident, dispersive in non-breading season; highly gregarious.

315. Grey-headed Gull Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus

© Flutterby

© Toko
Breeding plumage, Atlantic coast, Northern Cape

© Sprocky

© Duke
Breeding plumage, Cape Vidal, iSimangaliso

© Duke
Breeding plumage, Marievale, Gauteng

© Peter Connan
Juvenile

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2