Sabine's gull
Xema sabini
Identification Tips:
- Small gull
- Shallowly forked tail
Adult alternate:
- Black head
- Black bill with yellow tip
- White neck and underparts
- Gray mantle
- Bold wing pattern: black outer primaries bordered by white triangle on
trailing edge of wing extending to wrist and gray inner wing
- White tips to black primaries
- Dark eye with red orbital ring
- Black legs
- White tail
Adult basic:
- Similar to adult alternate but has white head with dark smudges
Juvenile/First-year:
- Gray-brown rear of head, nape, mantle, and sides of breast
- Thin white edges to mantle create scalloped look
- White underparts
- Wing pattern similar to adult but inner wing is brown
- Black primaries lack white tips
- Dark bill
- Pinkish legs
- Black terminal tail band
Similar species:
In flight, the bold wing pattern is diagnostic. At rest, adults can be
told by their yellow-tipped bills. Immatures can be told from other small
immature gulls by their scalloped, brownish, not gray, mantles and forked
tails.