Xema sabini
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
Sabine's gull ( SAY-bin; Xema sabini) is a small gull. It is usually treated as the only species placed in the genus Xema, though some authors include it with other gulls in a wide view of the genus Larus. It has also been known historically as fork-tailed gull or xeme (from the genus name). It breeds in colonies on Arctic coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a ground nest lined with grass. Sabine's gull is pelagic outside the breeding season. It takes a wide variety of mainly animal food, and will eat any suitable small prey.
Sabine's gull was formally described in 1819 by the naturalist Joseph Sabine under the binomial name Larus sabini. Sabine based his description on specimens that had been collected by his brother Captain Edward Sabine, who had accompanied Captain John Ross on a voyage to look for the Northwest Passage. The birds were found breeding on low-lying islands off the west coast of Greenland in July 1818. Sabine's gull is now the only species placed in the genus Xema; the genus was described in 1819 by the zoologist William Leach in an appendix to Ross's account of the voyage. The genus name Xema appears to be an invented name... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Svalbard | 🇳🇴 Norway | |
| 3 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 6 | Death Valley National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | Padre Island National Seashore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | Manuel Antonio National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 11 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 14 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Anchorage | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Sabine's Gull sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 42 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 214th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Sabine's Gull in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sabine's 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.
11th of 14
Of the 14 parks where we can rate Sabine's Gull sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 11th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kenai Fjords National Park (United States, about 10%), Svalbard (Norway, under 5%) and Nahuel Huapi National Park (Argentina, under 5%).
Same family: Laridae
The closest relatives of the Sabine's Gull that you can see in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (family Laridae, Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers) are Laughing Gull (about 50%), Royal Tern (about 40%) and Ring-billed Gull (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sabine's Gull is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (42 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.
