Leucophaeus atricilla
Silhouette: Kai Caspar · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
The laughing gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named from its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. The laughing gull was long placed in the genus Larus until its present placement in Leucophaeus.
The laughing gull was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Larus atricilla. Linnaeus based his account on the "laughing gull" from the Bahamas that had been described and illustrated in 1729–1732 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. The laughing gull is now one of five New World gulls placed in the genus Leucophaeus that was introduced in 1855 by the German ornithologist Carl Friedrich Bruch. The genus name Leucophaeus is from Ancient... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 2 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 6 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Maracaibo | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 10 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tierpark Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Abilene Zoological Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Fort Worth Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Cameron Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | The Abilene Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Aquarium of the Americas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Mote Marine Laboratory | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Albuquerque Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | South Carolina Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Rio Grande Botanic Garden | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Seaside Seabird Sanctuary | 🇺🇸 United States |
Very likely
About 70% of wildlife watchers report a Laughing Gull sighting in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 1,600 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 3rd most-seen of the 297 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and March
In those months about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Laughing Gull in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against about 50% in April and July, the lowest months. Those are among Celestún Biosphere Reserve's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 160 mm in June.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Laughing Gull sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 44
Of the 44 parks where we can rate Laughing Gull sightings, Celestún Biosphere Reserve ranks 3rd at about 70%. The best odds are in Padre Island National Seashore (United States, about 90%) and Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 90%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Leucophaeus
The closest relatives of the Laughing Gull that you can see in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (genus Leucophaeus, Hooded Gulls) are Grey Gull (about 20%) and Franklin's Gull (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Laughing Gull is recorded against all the birds logged in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (1,600 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
