🐾 Laughing Gull

Leucophaeus atricilla · wildlife atlas entry

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The laughing gull ( Leucophaeus atricilla ) is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. The genus name Leucophaeus is from Ancient Greek leukos , "white", and phaios , "dusky". The specific atricilla is from Latin ater , "black", and cilla , "tail". Linnaeus appears to have misread his note atricapilla (black-haired), which would have been much more appropriate for this black-headed, but white-tailed, bird. Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.

Laughing Gull — reference photo from iNaturalist — (c) José Antonio Linage Espinosa, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by José Antonio Linage Espinosa · cc-by-nc

Record card

Scientific name	Leucophaeus atricilla
Rank	species
Community observations	103,546 research-grade records on iNaturalist

Classification

kingdom Animalia › phylum Chordata › class Aves › order Charadriiformes › family Laridae

Seen in the wild — community photographs

Laughing Gull photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-12 · E Galleria Dr, Henderson, NV, US
(c) Erik Atwell, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Laughing Gull photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-21 · East Shore, New Haven, CT 06512, USA
(c) Steve Mayo, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Laughing Gull photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-23 · Cruise Ship Shuttle Bus Stop, Boulevard Turístico Malecón, 97320 Progreso, Yuc., México
(c) Andrea Vera, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Laughing Gull photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-19 · South Padre Island, TX, USA
(c) animan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Laughing Gull photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-09-26 · Brevard County, FL, USA
(c) Tou Mik, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Laughing Gull photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-23 · Orange Beach, AL, US
(c) Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Photographs are Creative Commons-licensed observations from iNaturalist, credited as each licence requires. Click any photo for the full research record.

All Laughing Gull records on iNaturalist → · Encyclopedia entry (Wikipedia) →

Data: iNaturalist open API · stored on this server by the wildlife build so a page request never reaches the network · observations filtered to research grade with photos.

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