Black-legged Kittiwake

About the Black-legged Kittiwake

The black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Larus tridactylus. The English name is derived from its call, a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'. In North America, this species is known as the black-legged kittiwake to differentiate it from the red-legged kittiwake, but in Europe, where it is the only member of the genus, it is often known just as kittiwake.

The black-legged kittiwake was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed with the gulls in the genus Larus and coined the binomial name Larus tridactylus. Linnaeus specified the type location as northern Europe but this has been restricted to Great Britain. The black-legged kittiwake is now placed together with the red-legged kittiwake in the genus Rissa that was introduced in 1826 by the English naturalist James Stephens. The genus name is from the Icelandic word "rita" for a black-legged kittiwake. The specific tridactyla is from Ancient Greek tridaktulos meaning "three-toed... Wikipedia →