Leucophaeus modestus
Silhouette: Kai Caspar · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The grey gull, also known as garuma gull (Leucophaeus modestus), is a medium-sized gull native to South America. Unusual among gulls, it breeds inland in the extremely dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile, although it is present as a non-breeding bird along much of the Pacific coast of South America.
The sexes are similar in grey gulls. Adults grow to a length of about 45 cm (18 in) and weigh some 360 to 400 g (13 to 14 oz). The head is white in summer but brownish-grey in winter. The body and wings are grey with the dorsal surface rather darker than the ventral region. The flight feathers are black and the inner primaries and the secondaries have white tips, visible in flight. The tail has a band of black with a white trailing edge. The legs and beak are black and the iris is brown. The call is similar to that of the laughing gull (Leucophaeus atricilla).
The grey gull breeds inland in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Its non-breeding range includes Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, and it has been recorded in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It is a vagrant to Panama and Florida; an earlier report... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celestún Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Galápagos Islands | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lima | 🇵🇪 Peru |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tierpark Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Brookfield Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Sedgwick County Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Hellabrunn Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Oregon Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Tierpark Schlichtweg 15 in München | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 8 | Zoo Schlichtweg 11 in München | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 9 | Zoo Siebenbrunner Straße 6 in München | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Gull sighting in Lima on a given day, based on 1,100 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 53rd most-seen of the 171 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and July
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Gull in Lima on a given day, against under 5% in November and December, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grey Gull sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Lima, in our data
Lima is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Grey Gull sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grey Gull is recorded against all the birds logged in Lima (1,100 verified sightings), 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.
