Laridae – Gulls, Terns & Skimmers

The Laridae (Gulls, Terns & Skimmers) family, despite appearances, are closely related to waders. The order Charadriiformes also includes Charadriidae (Plovers & Lapwings), Pluvianellidae (Magellanic Plover), Chionidae  (Sheathbills), Burhinidae (Thick-knees & Stone Curlews), Pluvianidae (Egyptian Plover), Recurvirostridae (Stilts & Avocets) Ibidorhynchidae (Ibisbill), Haematopodidae (Oystercatchers), Pedionomidae (Plains Wanderer), Thinocoridae (Seedsnipes), Rostratulidae (Painted Snipe), Jacanidae (Jacanas), Scolopacidae (Sandpipers), Turnicidae (Buttonquails), Dromadidae (Crab-Plover), Glareolidae (Coursers & Pratincoles) and Stercorariidae (Skuas), Alcidae (Auks).

The IOC fairly recently lumped into the Laridae family that had formerly been all the gulls, two other groups, which had been treated as families in their own right, Skimmers and Terns. The latter contains some of the most beautiful species and in many ways the most birdy of birds – the Arctic Tern, which, in the course of two years, completely circumnavigates the globe going from pole to pole and back again.

 South American Tern Sterna hirundinacea –Dubi Shapiro

Black Skimmer Rynchops niger – Charles J Sharp via Wikimedia Commons

The Laridae are the most familiar birds of every shore. Active, obvious, and seldom shy, they are sometimes in our lives even more than we would like. They can be divided by what they eat: Gulls generally eat any animal they can swallow, dead or alive, and they gather their food with an astonishing opportunism and ingenuity; terns mostly eat fish that they dive for, and they stay out of each other’s way in loose foraging aggregations; and skimmers use their highly specialized bills to snag their prey from the surface of calm water, often in gracefully coordinated bands. Larids lay their eggs on sandy beaches, atop precarious cliff ledges, and even in trees, and the precocial young are fed at home until they fledge.

Brown Noddy Anous stolidus – Dubi Shapiro

Laridae is a family of seabirds that includes the gulls, terns (including white terns), noddies, and skimmers. It includes over one hundred species arranged into twenty-three genera. They are an adaptable group of mostly aerial birds found worldwide.

Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla – ©Dubi Shapiro

Their adaptability has likely been a factor in their spread around the world. Most have become much more aerial (preferring flight) than their ancestor, which likely resembled some form of beachcombing shorebird. In general, most gulls tend to inhabit in the northern hemisphere at temperate latitudes (except for the Ivory Gull breeding in the High Arctic). By comparison, skimmers and terns tend to live in subtropical and tropical regions of the globe. During the nonbreeding season, many species of larids fly offshore, often becoming pelagic. In the breeding season, they mostly nest along coastal regions or marshlands, although in some places they take advantage of the man-made ‘cliffs’ in cities.

Short-billed Gull Larus brachyrhynchus – ©Dubi Shapiro

I really do not know why Gulls excite such passion. Frankly, I, like very many birders, find the taxa difficult to ID quickly and, sorry chaps, rather boring. It’s a bit like the old Ford dictum – you can have any colour you like as long as its black! With gulls that’s black, white and shades of grey. On the other hand, terns are so elegant in form that it is hard not to find them attractive despite their mostly monochrome hues.

Sabine’s Gull Xema sabini – ©Dubi Shapiro

Ross’s Gull Rhodostethia rosea – ©Dubi Shapiro

Nevertheless, there are a great many very dedicated gull watchers ready to identify by leg shade or gape colour. Good luck to you I say – I admit it has one great advantage – every town with a rubbish tip has plenty of gulls and these successful birds are very much more common inland than they used to be. Laridae are, of course, a good way of recognising a birder and separating him or her from the populous at large. Point at the black and white bird and ask what it is. Most people will tell you it’s a sea-gull. Birders will tell you it’s a gull!