Laughing Gull
Leucophaeus atricilla
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Cordats)
- ClassAves (Aus)
- OrderCharadriiformes (Caradriformes)
- FamilyLaridae (Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers)
- GenusLeucophaeus (Hooded Gulls)
- SpeciesLeucophaeus atricilla (Laughing Gull)
The laughing gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named from its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. Two subspecies are accepted, L. a. atricilla, which occurs from the West Indies to the Venezuelan islands, and L. a. megalopterus, which occurs from southeast Canada down to Central America. Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Cape Breton Highlands National Park
American Herring Gull
Larus smithsonianus
Great Black-backed Gull
Larus marinus
Ring-billed Gull
Larus delawarensis
Iceland Gull
Larus glaucoides
Common Tern
Sterna hirundo
Black-legged Kittiwake
Rissa tridactyla
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Larus fuscus
Bonaparte's Gull
Chroicocephalus philadelphia
Glaucous Gull
Larus hyperboreus
Caspian Tern
Hydroprogne caspia
Black-headed Gull
Chroicocephalus ridibundus
Black Guillemot
Cepphus grylle
📅 Monthly Probability
Fewer than 5 records of Laughing Gull at Cape Breton Highlands National Park — not enough to chart months honestly.
☀️ When They're Spotted
Most active during daytime hours (6am–6pm) · across all parks (global)
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there