Black-legged kittiwake

Black-legged kittiwake

Calls, recorded on Skomer
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)^[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Laridae
Genus:	Rissa
Species:	R. tridactyla
Binomial name
*Rissa tridactyla* (Linnaeus, 1758)

Summer Winter

The black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.

This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Larus tridactylus.^[2]

Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

In North America, this species is known as the black-legged kittiwake to differentiate it from the red-legged kittiwake, but in Europe, where it is the only member of the genus, it is often known just as kittiwake.

The adult is 37–41 cm (15–16 in) in length with a wingspan of 91–105 cm (36–41 in) and a body mass of 305–525 g (10.8–18.5 oz).^[3] It has a white head and body, grey back, grey wings tipped solid black, and have black legs and a yellow bill. Occasional individuals have pinky-grey to reddish legs, inviting confusion with red-legged kittiwake. In winter, this species acquires a dark grey smudge behind the eye and a grey hind-neck collar. The name is derived from its call, a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'.

It is a coastal breeding bird around the north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans, found most commonly in North America and Europe. It breeds in large colonies on cliffs and is very noisy on the breeding ground. Cliff nesting for gulls occurs only in the Rissa species, and the kittiwake is capable of utilizing the very sheerest of vertical cliffs, as is evident in their nesting sites on Staple Island in the outer Farne Islands (Hogan, 2005). One to two buff spotted eggs are laid in the nest lined with moss or seaweed. The downy young of kittiwakes are white, since they have no need of camouflage from predators, and do not wander from the nest like Larus gulls for obvious safety reasons.

At fledging, the juveniles differ from the adults in having a black 'W' band across the length of the wings and whiter secondary and primary feathers behind the black 'W', a black hind-neck collar and a black terminal band on the tail. The old fisherman's name of "tarrock" for juvenile kittiwakes is still occasionally used.

They are fish feeders, and are more pelagic than Larus gulls outside the breeding season. They do not scavenge at tips like some other gull species.

There are two races of black-legged kittiwake:

Rissa tridactyla tridactyla – (Linnaeus, 1758) in the North Atlantic Ocean, which is unique among the Laridae in having only a very small or even no hind toe.
Rissa tridactyla pollicaris – (Ridgway, 1884) in the north Pacific Ocean, which (as the name pollex, thumb, suggests) has a normally developed hind toe.

Gallery

In flight, Heligoland, Germany
In Seward, Alaska
Colony at Svalbard
Chased by an Arctic skua at Svalbard
At the Norwegian bird-island Runde
At Runde
On nest with chick
Adult and chicks
Youth (Iceland)
ID composite

Notes

↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Rissa tridactyla". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
↑ (Latin) Linnaeus, C (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii). p. 136. L, albicans dorso canescente, rectricibus excepto extimo nigris, pedibus tridaclylis.
↑ (2011).

References

Harrison, Peter (1988). Seabirds: An Identification Guide. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7470-1410-8

External links

Avibase
Black-legged Kittiwake - Rissa tridactyla USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
Black-legged Kittiwake Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Media related to Rissa tridactyla at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Rissa tridactyla at Wikispecies
Rissa tridactyla in the Flickr: Field Guide Birds of the World

Gulls (family: Laridae)

Genus	Species

Larus	Pacific gull Belcher's gull Olrog's gull Black-tailed gull Heermann's gull Common Gull (or Mew Gull) Ring-billed gull California gull Great black-backed gull Kelp gull (or Cape gull) Glaucous-winged gull Western gull Yellow-footed gull Glaucous gull Iceland gull Kumlien's gull Thayer's gull European herring gull Heuglin's gull American herring gull Yellow-legged gull Caspian gull Vega gull (or East Siberian gull / Mongolian gull) Armenian gull Slaty-backed gull Lesser black-backed gull

Ichthyaetus	White-eyed gull Sooty gull Great black-headed gull (or Pallas's gull) Audouin's gull Mediterranean gull Relict gull

Leucophaeus	Dolphin gull Laughing gull Franklin's gull Lava gull Grey gull

Chroicocephalus	Silver gull Red-billed gull Huahine gull Hartlaub's gull Brown-hooded gull Grey-headed gull (or Grey-hooded gull) Andean gull Black-billed gull Brown-headed gull Black-headed gull Slender-billed gull Bonaparte's gull

Saundersilarus	Saunders's gull

Hydrocoloeus	Little gull

Rhodostethia	Ross's gull

Rissa	Black-legged kittiwake Red-legged kittiwake

Pagophila	Ivory gull

Xema	Sabine's gull

Creagrus	Swallow-tailed gull

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