Hydrocoloeus minutus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The little gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus) is a species of gull belonging to the family Laridae which is mainly found in the Palearctic with some small colonies in North America. It breeds on freshwater lakes and marshes, and spends winters at sea. It is the smallest species of gull in the world, and the only species in the monospecific genus Hydrocoloeus.
The little gull was first formally described as Larus minutus in 1776 by the German ornithologist Peter Simon Pallas with its type locality given as Berezovo, Tobolsk in Siberia. In 1829, Johann Jakob Kaup proposed the genus Hydrocoloeus for this species, and George Robert Gray later formally designated Larus minutus as the type species of the genus. Kaup had also included Larus plumbiceps Meyer, 1822 in his genus Hydrocoloeus; this is a synonym of Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus (grey-headed gull). Hydrocoloeus minutus is the binomial accepted for this species and it is classified in the family Laridae, the gulls and terns, in the order Charadriiformes.
Within the Laridae, its closest relative is Ross's gull Rhodostethia rosea; some authors have even included Ross's gull in Hydrocoloeus rather than giving it its own genus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 2 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 3 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 4 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 5 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 8 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 9 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 2 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Kunming | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 5 | Turin | 🇮🇹 Italy | |
| 6 | Saint Petersburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 7 | Rotterdam [The Hague] | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 8 | Istanbul | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 9 | Minsk | 🇧🇾 Belarus | |
| 10 | Warsaw | 🇵🇱 Poland |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Gull sighting in Fertő-Hanság National Park on a given day, based on 67 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 129th most-seen of the 207 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Little Gull in Fertő-Hanság National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and October–March, the lowest months.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Little 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.
Among the best
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Little Gull sightings, Fertő-Hanság National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Hortobágy National Park (Hungary, about 10%) and Kiskunság National Park (Hungary, about 10%).
Same family: Laridae
The closest relatives of the Little Gull that you can see in Fertő-Hanság National Park (family Laridae, Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers) are Black-headed Gull (about 60%), Yellow-legged Gull (about 30%) and Common Tern (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Gull is recorded against all the birds logged in Fertő-Hanság National Park (67 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.
