Franklin's Gull (Larus pipixcan)--
This gull is about 15 inches long. The wingspan is 36 inches. It is similar to the Laughing Gull but smaller, lighter, with slate gray wings with white bar and black-and-white tips on primaries. All winter birds have a dark half-hood, more extensive than in any winter Laughing Gull.
The voice is a loud, high-pitched ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Laughing Gulls live mainly in prairie marshes and sloughs in large, noisy colonies. They often feed on insects in plowed fields. The eggs (3 buff-brown colored) are laid in a loose platform in a marsh.
These gulls breed on prairie marshes from southern Canada to South Dakota and Iowa; also in scattered marshes in the West. They migrate to the southeast and winter mainly along the west coast of South America.
Order: Charadrifformes | Family: Laridae | Species: Larus pipixcan
