Sabine's Gull Xema sabini

Sabine's Gull is an unusual and distinctive arctic gull that breeds at high latitudes but winters in coastal upwelling zones of the Tropics and Subtropics. Its dark gray hood, black bill with yellow tip, and tricolored upperwing consisting of alternating triangles of black, white, and gray make the adults of this species highly identifiable.

First discovered at Melville Bay, Greenland, by Edward Sabine, in 1818 (Sabine 1819 Sabine, J. (1819). An account of a new species of gull lately discovered on the west coast of Greenland. Trans. Linn. Soc. London 12:520-523. Close ), this Holarctic, high-arctic species nests on arctic and subarctic tundra in marshy areas, often with extensive mixtures of marshes, ponds, and lakes. Females lay 2–3 eggs in rudimentary nests, often without nest-lining, and incubate them for 20–25 d; after hatching, the young are taken to freshwater ponds or saltwater shorelines, where they grow rapidly while feeding on aquatic insects, especially dipterans. After breeding, both adults and young migrate to winter at sea in coastal-upwelling zones off western South America and southern Africa.

The Sabine's Gull is considered an aberrant gull, both morphologically and behaviorally (Brown et al. 1967 Brown, R. G. B., N. G. Blurton Jones and D. J. T. Hussell. (1967). The breeding behaviour of Sabine's Gull, Xema sabini. Behaviour 28:110-140. Close , Abraham 1986 Abraham, D. M. (1986). Observations on the breeding biology of Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini). Canadian Journal of Zoology 64:898-903. Close ). It is one of only two gulls having a black bill with a yellow tip and a notched tail. It also displays many behavioral characteristics more similar to shorebirds than to gulls (e.g., distraction display, feeding method on mudflats) and others more similar to terns than to gulls (e.g., call, flight, feeding of whole prey directly to female during courtship, development of flight long before chick is fully feathered).

The primary research on Sabine's Gulls has been on behavior (Brown et al. 1967 Brown, R. G. B., N. G. Blurton Jones and D. J. T. Hussell. (1967). The breeding behaviour of Sabine's Gull, Xema sabini. Behaviour 28:110-140. Close ), breeding biology (Sutton 1932b Sutton, G. M. (1932). The exploration of Southampton Island. Part II, Zoölogy. Section 2.-The birds of Southampton Island. Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum 12(2):1–275. Close , Brandt 1942 Brandt, H. (1942). Alaska Bird Trails: An Expedition by Dog Sled to the Delta of the Yukon River at Hooper Bay. The Bird Research Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA. Close , Parmelee et al. 1967 Parmelee, D. F., H. A. Stephens, and R. H. Schmidt (1967). The birds of Southeastern Victoria Island and adjacent small islands. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 222. Close , Abraham 1986 Abraham, D. M. (1986). Observations on the breeding biology of Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini). Canadian Journal of Zoology 64:898-903. Close , Forchhammer and Maagaard 1991 Forchhammer, M. and L. Maagaard. (1991). Breeding biology of Sabine's Gull (Larus sabini) in Northeast Greenland. Dansk Ornithologisk Forenings Tidsskrift 85:53-62. Close , Stenhouse et al. 2001 Stenhouse, I. J., H. G. Gilchrist and W. A. Montevecchi. (2001). Reproductive biology of Sabine's Gull in the Canadian Arctic. Condor 103:98-107. Close ), and feeding ecology and habitat use (Duffy Duffy 1983d Duffy, D. C. (1983). The foraging ecology of Peruvian seabirds. Auk 100:800–810. Close , Duffy 1989 Duffy, D. C. (1989). Seabird foraging aggregations: a comparison of two southern upwellings. Colonial Waterbirds 12:164-175. Close ; Abraham and Ankney 1984 Abraham, D. M., and C. D. Ankney (1984). Partitioning of foraging habitat by breeding Sabine's Gulls and Arctic Terns. Wilson Bulletin 96(2):161–172. Close ). Much, however, remains to be learned about most aspects of the ecology of this unique little gull.