Ellie Barham

10-26-15

Laughing Gull

Larus articalla

The laughing gull, which is scientifically named Larus arrticalla lives in the South and warm habitats throughout the year,especially in the summer. Some of its habitats are the estuary and beaches. The classification of a laughing gull is… Its domain is Eukaryote, kingdom Animalia, phylum Chordata, and class is Aves. Also, its order is Charadriiformes, family is Laridae, genus is Larus, and finally its species is Larus articalla. The laughing gull has bilateral symmetry, it is endothermic, and heterotrophic. The laughing gull is very noisy and aggressive.. They are usually black and white and have an average length of 15- 17 inches. Two behavioral adaptations of the laughing gull is that it will eat almost anything and that is very loud so it will scare away predators. A structural adaptation is that it has a long wingspan so it can fly faster than predators. An interesting fact about this bird is that it often steals food from pelicans and terns. This birds prey is insects, fish, shellfish, and crabs. The predators of this bird are owls and racoons. I have loved researching this amazing animal.            

I found this picture at http://greglambethbirdphotos.smugmug.com/Greglambethbirdphotos/Gulls-and-Skimmers/i-g4HtvdQ