Lesser Black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull
Larus fuscus

by Chris Wood
Birders, often ridiculed by non-birding friends and family, used to drive hours to look at seagulls at a dump, because that’s where rare gulls would occasionally appear. For a long time, the Lesser Black-backed Gull was one of those rarities, but the dumps are closed and covered, and rare gulls are pretty much confined to the coast in Connecticut.

Nominally a European species, the Lesser Black-backed Gull is now an uncommon but regularly occurring bird along Connecticut’s coast from October through March. In fact, over the past 40 or so years, this bird has increased along the entire eastern seaboard and into the interior along waterways and by the Great Lakes.

While there are several subspecies, distinguished by the darkness of the black back, the Cornell Ornithology Lab account states that nearly all of the birds that reach North America are of the graellsii subspecies from Iceland, Britain, and western Europe.

What it looks like: Superficially similar to the far more common Great Black-backed Gull, the Lesser Black-backed is considerably smaller, somewhat more streamlined, and not as black-backed. With a close look at an adult, giveaways are the yellow — not pink/grey — legs and the smudgy streaking around the eye and head. If seen with other gulls (at least in the east), size is a quick field clue: a black-backed gull the size of a Herring Gull will be a Lesser.

Where to find it: Along the coast almost any open beach is a potential location from late fall into early spring. The most recent and apparently most reliable sites are at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport and the adjoining Burying Hill Beach (Town of Westport), where likely the same individual has been hanging out for a few years.

Stratford’s Long Beach Park is another site where this bird is regularly reported, and Connecticut Audubon’s Coastal Center at Milford Point has had several reports over the past few years. In Eastern Connecticut, Hammonasset Beach State Park and Rocky Neck State Park are likely locations.

Before 2015, several eBird reports were filed from inland along the Connecticut River, usually involving open landfills which are no longer in operation. Several sightings have been reported from the Shepaug Dam on the Housatonic River in Southbury, although none since February of 2016.

Still, any congregation of gulls along inland waterways, especially in winter and early spring, warrants study for Lesser Black-backs and other potential rarities.

Conservation Status: The IUCN lists the Lesser Black-backed Gull as a species of least concern, because of the large populations across its range. This species is believed to be expanding its breeding and wintering ranges, and the 2016 State of North America’s Birds (from the North American Bird Conservation Initiative) assesses the conservation concern as low to moderate.

Nonetheless, its reliance on coastal habitats that are also favored by Homo sapiens could put limits on further expansion.

Photos by Chris Wood