Identification - It is about the size of a crow. The breeding adult has an all-black head with white eye crescents above and below each eye and a dark all-red bill. The body has a dark gray back with the wings blending into black wingtips. The underparts are white contrasting with darker legs. Sexes are similar in appearance.
Morsels - In a colony of thousands of nests, how do the parents locate and feed only their own offspring? The Laughing Gull chick learns to recognize the adult's calls in stages over time. The adults, in turn, identify their chicks by the way the chicks react to their calls. The chicks use vocal recognition, while the adults use visual recognition.
