Distinguishing Characteristics

Medium-sized gull (39–46 cm). In Definitive Alternate (breeding) plumage, entire head black, forming a black “hood” with narrow white eye-crescents; mantle dark gray, outer primaries entirely black with no white subterminal spots (windows), tail white, bill reddish, legs reddish black. Sexes similar. Evanescent pink cast to breast feathers, which is present when birds first arrive on breeding grounds, quickly disappears. In Definitive Basic (nonbreeding) plumage, head is white with blackish marking from nape and ear-coverts to just in front of eye.

Basic I plumage similar to Definitive Basic but tail with broad blackish subterminal band; scapulars and wings dark gray, somewhat mottled brown with blackish primaries; sides of neck, breast band, and flanks dark gray; head markings darker and more extensive. Alternate I plumage similar to Basic I but generally paler; head sometimes with incomplete, speckled black hood, underparts with less extensive gray (Grant 1986). Basic II and Alternate II plumages intermediate between first-year and Definitive plumages.

Unlikely to be confused with any other North American gull except Franklin’s Gull (Larus pipixcan). General characteristics that distinguish Laughing Gull in all plumages from Franklin’s Gull include larger size and heavier body proportions, with particularly longer head, bill, and legs, and longer, more pointed wings. Laughing Gull bill is longer, thicker, and slightly drooped rather than short and straight (Grant 1986). In Alternate I and all subsequent plumages, Franklin’s Gull may resemble Laughing Gull very closely, but black on primaries is restricted and separated from remainder of wing by whitish areas (Lehman 1994). In Definitive Alternate plumage, Franklin’s Gull also differs from Laughing Gull in having grayish (not white) central rectrices and thicker white eye-crescents. Breeding ranges of the 2 species are nonoverlapping and widely separated. Laughing Gull breeds along east and southern coasts of North America, Franklin’s Gull in n. Great Plains of North America; when not breeding, however, the 2 species may occur in same locations. For more information on immature plumages, see Grant 1986 and Kaufman 1990 .