Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

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Adult Summer Plumage

Immature

Color Photograph: H.R. Spendelow, U.S. Geological Survey

Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 13 to 14 inches. A small, elegant, black-headed gull with a forked tail.

Adult Summer Plumage: Head black without a noticeable eye ring. Bill black, tipped with yellow. Neck, breast, and underside white. Back and base of wing gray. Outer and forward region of wing with a large black triangle. Inner half of wing white. Tail white, shallowly forked.

Adult Winter Plumage: Similar to the summer plumage but head white with a gray patch on the rear margin of the head.

Immature: Similar to the adult, but head white. Back and wings slightly browner than the adult. Back of head and neck brown, not white.

Similar Species:  There are a number of gull species with black heads. Sabine's Gull is easily identified by its striking wing pattern in the adult summer plumage and always by the slightly forked tail.

Breeding Range (see map below): Sabine's Gull breeds on the northern shores and island of arctic Canada as well and the shorelines of northern and western Alaska.

Overwintering Range:  This species overwinters along the Pacific Coast of South America.

Habitat: Sabine's Gull breeds near ponds on the coastal tundra in the far northern regions of North America. During migration it spends almost all of its time on the open ocean.

Food: Primarily aquatic invertibrates, also stealing eggs from colonies of the Arctic Tern.

Behavior:  Sabine's Gull is a delicate, graceful gull and acts more like a tern than a gull.. The voice is a series high pitched squeaks.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 3 to 5 brown-spotted olive-tan eggs. The eggs are laid in a nest lined with grass and placed in a depression on the ground. The species is a colonial nester.