Short-billed Gull

About the Short-billed Gull

The short-billed gull (Larus brachyrhynchus) is a species of gull that breeds in northwestern North America. In North America, it was previously known as the mew gull, when it was considered conspecific with the palearctic common gull (Larus canus). Most authorities, including the American Ornithological Society in 2021, have split the two populations as distinct species.

The species was first described by Scottish naturalist John Richardson in 1831 as the 'short-billed mew gull', Larus brachyrhynchus. Though some authorities, including the American Ornithologist's Union from 1931 onwards, have long considered brachyrhynchus to be a subspecies of the common gull, others have recognized the two as distinct species. In 2021, the American Ornithological Society agreed to split the short-billed gull as a distinct species based on differences in genetics, plumage, morphology and vocalizations. Though 'mew gull' has been used as name for the species in North America, the name short-billed gull was chosen due to the usage of "mew gull" in recent literature to denote all forms of L. canus and the fact that short-billed gull was previously used in older AOS checklists since... Wikipedia →