Identification - It is a smaller than a crow. The breeding adult has a black head with bright white eye crescents and a blood-red bill. The white underparts are tinged with different amounts of pink. The legs are reddish. The wingtips have a white band between the black tips and the gray of the upper wing and large white wing tips which helps separate it from the Laughing Gull of the east coast. Sexes are similar in appearance.
Morsels - The Franklin's Gull is unique among the North American gulls in that most of the population winters south of the equator to Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. This gull feeds mainly on insects, such as grasshoppers and flying ants, and therefore is considered beneficial by farmers whose crops are protected from damage.
