Description
This is the smallest type of gull with a length of 25-30 cm, a wingspan of 61-78 cm and a weight of 70-160g.
The Little Gull is pale grey in breeding plumage with a black hood, dark underwings and often a pinkish flush on the breast. In winter, the head goes white apart from a darker cap and eye-spot. The bill is thin and black and the legs dark red. The flight on rounded wings is somewhat tern-like.
Young birds have black markings on the head and upperparts, and “W” pattern across the wings. They take three years to reach maturity.
The usual sound is a short “kick-kick,” like a tern.
Distribution and Habitat
The Little Gull nests in northern Europe and Asia. It also has small colonies in southern Canada. The species is migratory and usually arrives in their breeding areas from the end of April to the end of May and remains there until the end of July.
Breeds on the shores of the Baltic Sea, Finland and southern Sweden, Poland and Russia, east of Siberia. It is rarely found on the Danish coast and on the north coast of the Black Sea. During the breeding season, it often visits coasts and deltas, but also marshy areas inland and continental lakes. Winter is found in large quantities near the Mediterranean, but also in Western Europe and the Baltic Sea. This season the Little Gull especially values protected estuaries, beaches and shoals near freshwater lakes.
In Bulgaria it is a nesting, passing and wintering species. For the first time during the breeding season the species was reported by the ornithologist Nikolay Boev near the town of Sozopol, the Alepu swamp and the Shabla Lake in 1949-1950 and the town of Balchik in 1960.
Feeding
In summer, Little Gull food consists mainly of small insects that catch on a flight or on the surface of the water. The rest of the year, mollusks, small crustaceans, worms, and sometimes fish and other small aquatic creatures make up this bird’s usual menu.
Breeding
The Little Gull nests in colonies in freshwater marshes and wetlands, making a lined nest on the ground amongst the vegetation, usually with 2-6 eggs inside. The female is alternating with the male gourd for hatching for 20 or 21 days. The small ones leave the nest usually on the first day and are hiding in the surrounding vegetation where the parents feed them. At the age of 25 days, the little ones begin to fly, but they need three years to reach maturity.
Conservation Status
Protected species under the Biological Diversity Act.
