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Sea BirdsBlack-legged Kittiwake
Black-legged Kittiwake
Common Name: Black-legged Kittiwake
Scientific Name: Rissa tridactyla
Description
If you are curious about why these familiar
birds are called kittiwakes, just listen
to their noisy racket. Black-legged kittiwakes named
themselves by calling out, over and over, "kitti-wake! kitti-wake!
kitti-wake!"
Kittiwake colonies are noisy
and unmistakable. These small members of the gull family (Laridae)
are widely distributed throughout the Alaskan coast. They
cluster together in groups of hundreds to thousands to nest
and raise young on islands, rocks, and cliffs. Early in the
summer kittiwakes can be seen flying overhead in streams as
they gather grass and dry seaweed for their nests. They pat
mud and wet seaweed into these grasses with their webbed feet
to make the nest more stable and secure. After mating at that
very site the female lays one to two pale speckled eggs.
Identification Tips
Length: 13.5 inches Wingspan: 36 inches
Sexes similar
Medium-sized gull
Bill relatively slim with indistinct gonydeal angle
Black legs
Adult Alternate
Bright yellow unmarked bill
Dark eye
White head, neck, breast, and belly
Gray back and upperwings
Thin white tertial crescent
Primary tips black with no white spots
White tail
Adult Basic
Like adult alternate but dark smudges on nape
Juvenile/First-year
Black bill
Black ear spot
Black collar
White head, tail, and underparts
Gray back
Black outer primaries and carpal bar contrasting with paler inner primaries and secondaries
Black terminal tail band
Similar Species
Only the Red-legged Kittiwake
shares the solid black wingtips and plain yellow bill of the
adult Black-legged Kittiwake. The adult Red-legged
Kittiwake has a darker mantle, shorter bill, darker
color underprimaries, and red legs. Immature Black-legged
Kittiwakes have bold wing patterns that are similar to
immature Bonaparte's, Black-headed, and Little gulls but have
a distinctive black collar. Immature Red-legged Kittiwakes
lack a black tail band and dark carpal bar.
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