Black-legged Kittiwake

Facts about the Black-legged Kittiwake it is one of the varieties of sea birds, which belongs to the Rissa genus of the Laridae gull family. The binomial name of the Black-legged Kittiwake is Rissa Tridactyla and it rears along the northern coastlines and winters out at the ocean. This marine bird is a small, cliff-nesting bird that hails from North America, and its name is used to distinguish it from the other variety of a Kittiwake seabird, known as the Red-legged Kittiwake. However, the Black-legged Kittiwake is the only affiliate of the genus in Europe, where it is habitually called simply as Kittiwake. The Black-legged Kittiwake attained its name because of its kittee-wa-aaake call.

Features

The adult Black-legged Kittiwake appears with the body length, ranging from 15 inches to 16 inches (37 cm to 41 cm), and with a wingspan between 36 inches and 41 inches (91 cm and 105 cm) and with a body weight that ranges from 305 grams to 525 grams (10.8 Oz to 18.5 Oz.

The Black-legged Kittiwake has a white color body and head, with a gray colored back. The wings of the Black-legged Kittiwake bird are also gray in color and they are tipped in solid black. The Black-legged Kittiwake's legs are black in color and the bill assumes a yellow color. Some Black-legged Kittiwake gulls may boast pinkish-gray to red color legs, inviting perplexity with the Red-legged Kittiwake. During the winter season, the Black-legged Kittiwake bird gets a dark gray smudge at the back of its eyes and a gray back-neck collar.

Juveniles of the Black-legged Kittiwake have a downy white color body because they have no necessity of camouflage from their predators, and do not roam from the nest similar to Larus gulls for noticeable safety reasons.

When the wing muscles and feathers are adequately developed for flight, the young Black-legged Kittiwake birds differ from the adult birds in having a black color W-shaped band along the length of their wings and whiter primary and secondary feathers at the back of the W-shaped band, a black rear-neck collar, and a black color terminal band on their tail.

Diet

The Black-legged Kittiwake mostly feeds on fish and some sea invertebrates. The Black-legged Kittiwake bird does not scavenge at tips similar to other gull varieties.

Breeding

The Black-legged Kittiwake is a coastal breeding seabird that breeds around the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean. The Black-legged Kittiwake is most commonly found in Europe and North America, and it usually breeds in huge settlements on cliffs and is extremely noisy on its breeding ground. The Black-legged Kittiwake marine birds build their nests on cliffs, lined with seaweed or moss, and they are capable of using the very sheerest of perpendicular cliffs. More predation takes place on the nests of these marine birds during years of limited food because the nests are more probable to be left unmanned while the parent birds go out in search of food. The female Black-legged Kittiwake is capable of laying one to two eggs in a single clutch, and they are buff spotted. The Black-legged Kittiwake birds are more pelagic outside their breeding period than other gulls in their family.

Similar to other sea gulls, the average life span of the Black-legged Kittiwake is 18 years.