Laughing Gull

coastal birds · smart scavengers · Atlantic Ocean

Laugh-like call. The laughing gull got its name because its loud, distinctive cry sounds like a person laughing. You can hear these birds making their funny calls throughout their colonies.

Eats almost anything. Laughing gulls are opportunistic omnivores, which means they'll eat just about any food they can find. They scavenge for scraps at beaches, steal food from other birds, and snack on fish, insects, and leftovers from people.

Massive colonies. These gulls breed in huge groups, sometimes with thousands of birds living together along coastlines. They mostly nest along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America.

Two different groups. Scientists recognize two subspecies of laughing gulls that live in different parts of the Americas. One lives from the West Indies to Venezuela, and the other stretches from southeast Canada all the way down to Central America.

Changed its genus. For a long time, scientists grouped laughing gulls with other similar gulls in the genus Larus. Eventually, they moved laughing gulls to their own genus called Leucophaeus when they learned more about the bird.