Franklin's Gull

Franklin's Gull is a compact, elegant gull of interior North America, breeding in vast marshy colonies on prairie lakes and wetlands. In breeding plumage it sports a full black hood bordered by bold white crescents above and below the eye, a dark slate-gray mantle, and underparts often washed with a delicate pink blush.

The bill and legs are dark red, deepening in color during courtship. In flight, the wingtips show a distinctive pattern: black tips separated from the gray mantle by a crisp white band, giving a tricolored look unlike most other small gulls. Non-breeding birds lose the full hood, retaining a dark half-hood or smudge on the nape with the bold white eye crescents still visible.

Franklin's Gulls are famous for their close association with agriculture, following plows to feast on exposed earthworms and grubs, and forming enormous, swirling flocks during migration.

Key field marks

• Black hood (breeding) with thick white crescents both above and below the eye
• Small, dark red bill and legs
• Black wingtips separated from the gray mantle by a clean white band
• Often a pale pink wash on the breast in fresh breeding plumage
• Compact, stocky build compared to other small hooded gulls

Similar species

• Laughing Gull: larger, longer-billed, less white in the wingtip, and lacks the bold double eye crescents.
• Bonaparte's Gull: smaller still, black bill, orange-red legs, and a white wedge on the outer wing rather than a white band.
• Black-headed Gull: brown (not black) hood and a white leading-edge wedge on the wing rather than a subterminal white band.

Habitat

Breeding habitat consists of large freshwater marshes and shallow prairie lakes with extensive stands of emergent vegetation such as bulrush, where colonies may number in the thousands. In winter, birds shift to coastal waters, harbors, and agricultural fields.

Range and migration

Franklin's Gull breeds in the northern Great Plains of the United States and the prairie provinces of Canada. It undertakes an exceptionally long migration, traveling through the interior United States and Central America to winter almost entirely along the Pacific coast of South America, from Peru south to Chile, occasionally reaching the Gulf Coast in transit.

Behavior

Highly social at all seasons, Franklin's Gulls migrate and winter in large, tightly packed flocks and are famous for trailing farm machinery to catch insects and earthworms turned up by plowing.

Voice

Calls include a nasal, high-pitched "weeh-ah" or laughing note, softer and higher-pitched than the Laughing Gull's call.

Feeding

They feed heavily on insects, especially grasshoppers and crickets on the breeding grounds, as well as earthworms in agricultural fields, and small aquatic invertebrates and fish at sea.

Nesting and breeding

Nests are built as floating platforms of marsh vegetation anchored among reeds, often in enormous colonies numbering in the tens of thousands of pairs. Both parents incubate the typical clutch of two to three eggs and share chick-rearing duties.