Black-legged kittiwake

The black legged kittiwake is a seabird in the gull family Laridae, first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Larus tridactylus, with its current genus Rissa established in 1826. Its name comes from its call, which resembles a long kit-ti-wake. Adults measure 37 to 41 centimeters in length with wingspans of 91 to 105 centimeters, and show a white head and body, grey back, grey wings tipped black, black legs and a yellow bill, and unusually for a gull they have only three toes and lack a functional hind toe. Two subspecies are recognized, one breeding in the North Atlantic from Greenland to northwest Europe and the other in the North Pacific from Siberia to Alaska, with birds wintering further south. The species is highly pelagic, spending most of its time at sea outside the May to September breeding season, when it nests colonially on steep sea cliffs and feeds mainly on small fish such as sandeels in European waters. The IUCN classifies the black legged kittiwake as Vulnerable, with populations having declined by roughly 40 percent over three generations since the 1970s.