Watching the Birds Affected by the BP Oil Spill: Laughing Gull

The environment is taking a real hit due to the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf Coast region. We still do know how long it will take the region to recover, and it may not happen -- unfortunately -- in our lifetimes. The wildlife of the region is also suffering, right along with the environment and the people. Birds are being covered with oil, which causes numerous health problems and even death. In addition, the food supply is being contaminated. The birds then ingest contaminated fish, shrimp, and crustaceans, which further endangers their health. (There is also a belief that oil-contaminated birds that survive will have a slowed reproductive capacity. This means that repopulation will probably be extremely difficult and take quite a long time.) One of the many birds being adversely affected by the BP Oil Spill is the laughing gull.

Anyone that enjoys frolicking on the beach is familiar with the gulls that are everywhere. In fact, it would not feel like a beach if you didn't see these birds flying and hopping around and hear their distinctive cries. One of the gulls familiar to the Gulf Coast region is the laughing gull (Larus atricilla). It gets its name from the loud ha-ha-ha-ha-haah-haah-haah-haah-haah call that it makes. The laughing gull is a very common member of the gull family of birds that visits the Gulf coast region in the summer. During their breeding season, laughing gulls can be found from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean. They winter regularly in Virginia, and a few can be found even further north. They like marshes, bays, and estuaries -- the very habitat being destroyed by the BP Oil Spill. During the winter months, they look for food in harbors and along beaches.

The laughing gull is about 15-17 inches in size. The adult has a black hood during the breeding season. In the summer, it has a dark gray back and wings. The trailing part of the wing is white with a black tip. The young birds are dark brown with a broad black-colored tail. Laughing gulls nest in colonies, with up to 25,000 pairs of gulls in just one colony. They build their nests on the ground and lay 2-4 olive-brown eggs with dark splotches. The babies may leave the nest as early as one-day-old.

The laughing gull population was once threatened as hunters killed the birds for their feathers. Legislation protecting them from such human scavengers meant that the populations of laughing gulls were able to rebound. However, herring gulls also put the laughing gull in danger, because the herring gull would prey upon the laughing gull's eggs and young. With the BP Oil Spill, the laughing gull is in even more danger than it ever was. Not only is this gull ingesting contaminated food, it is carrying the oil contamination back to its nests and spreading it to its young. Because so many birds congregate in one area, this could lead to a very serious decline in their numbers.

References:

All About Birds. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Laughing Gull.

Audubonmagazine.org. Michele Wilson: Oil Spill Wildlife Spotlight: Gulls and Terns.

Bull, John and John Farrand, Jr. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Edition. NY, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1994.

National Wildlife Federation. How the Gulf Oil Spill Could Hurt Animals.