Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: Rob Curtis/Vireo
Franklin's Gull
Leucophaeus pipixcan
| Conservation status | Because of nesting in large freshwater marshes, local numbers fluctuate with cycles of rainfall and drought. Overall population trend uncertain; thought to have declined sharply in some areas, but stable in others, and has expanded breeding range to new areas in recent decades. |
|---|---|
| Family | Gulls and Terns |
| Habitat | Prairies, inland marshes; in winter, coasts, ocean. Nests on prairie marshes where habitat is extensive and water is fairly deep; forages during summer and migration over agricultural fields, prairie, flooded pasture, marshes, estuaries. In winter mostly along coast, in protected bays, estuaries; sometimes far offshore or on lakes well inland. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Forages by walking or wading on ground, by swimming, or by catching insects in flight.
Eggs
3, sometimes 2, rarely 4. Buff to olive or brown, blotched with brown or black. Incubation is by both sexes, 23-26 days. Young: Both parents feed young and brood them while they are small; one parent remains with young at all times. Young remain in nest at least 20 days, then may swim short distances around nest. Capable of flight at about 35 days, but fed by parents for at least another week.
Young
Both parents feed young and brood them while they are small; one parent remains with young at all times. Young remain in nest at least 20 days, then may swim short distances around nest. Capable of flight at about 35 days, but fed by parents for at least another week.
Diet
Mainly insects, fish. Diet in summer is mostly insects (especially aquatic insects and grasshoppers) and earthworms, also seeds, leeches, snails, crayfish. In some regions, young are fed mostly earthworms. During winter may eat many small fish and crustaceans in addition to insects.
Nesting
Breeds in colonies. In courtship, pairs stand upright and alternately turn heads toward and away from each other; male may feed female. Nest site is in marsh, where water may be several feet deep. Nest (built by both sexes) is large floating mass of bulrushes, cattails, other plant material, often anchored to standing vegetation. Much of nest material is stolen from other nests in colony.
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- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
Songs and Calls
A strident ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, similar to Laughing Gull's but higher pitched.How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
