Franklin's gull Larus pipixcan

Identification Tips:

• Medium-sized, fairly short-winged gull
• Bill is relatively short and straight
• Fairly round head gives "gentle" appearance
• Adult plumage reached in second year

Adult alternate:

• Red bill
• Black head
• Fairly bold white crescents above and below eye
• White neck, breast, and belly
• Dark gray back and upperwings
• Pale scapular crescent and tertial crescent
• Dark primaries, with bold white tips
• Dark primaries divided from gray upperwing by white bar
• White tail with pale gray central retricies

Adult basic:

• Black bill
• Prominent black half hood on rear of head

Juvenile:

• Black bill
• Black half hood (does not include forehead)
• Gray back
• Brown upperwings
• Pale edgings to upperwing coverts
• Pale foreneck, breast and belly
• Dark terminal band on white tail does not include outer tail feathers

Immature:

• First-year bird has gray back, brown upperwing coverts, black half hood, white breast and belly, and white tail with black terminal band that does not include outer tail feathers.
• Second-year bird like adult alternate, but may not show strong white division between mantle and wingtips. Birds with black hoods often show pale flecks around face.

Similar species:

Laughing Gull is extremely similar. Adults in alternate plumage have grayer heads, less prominent eye crescents, smaller white tips to primaries and lack the white bar between gray upperwing and black primaries. Immatures and basic-plumaged adults typically lack the half-hoods of Franklin's Gull. Other minor plumage differences exist, but all age groups are perhaps best separated by structural features. Franklin's Gulls are shorter-billed, smaller, and have shorter wings. Bonaparte's, Little, Black-headed and Sabine's Gulls have much different wing patterns.