Kittiwake

The two species are physically very similar. They have a white head and body, grey back, grey wings tipped solid black and a bright yellow bill. Black-legged kittiwake adults are somewhat larger (roughly {{convert|40|cm|abbr=on|disp=or}} in length with a wingspan of {{convert|90|–|100|cm|abbr=on|disp=or}}) than red-legged kittiwakes ({{convert|35|–|40|cm|abbr=on|disp=or}} in length with a wingspan around {{convert|84|–|90|cm|abbr=on|disp=or}}). Other differences include a shorter bill, larger eyes, a larger, rounder head and darker grey wings in the red-legged kittiwake. While most black-legged kittiwakes do, indeed, have dark-grey legs, some have pinkish-grey to reddish legs, making colouration a somewhat unreliable identifying marker.

In contrast to the dappled chicks of other gull species, kittiwake chicks are downy and white since they are under relatively little threat of predation, as the nests are on extremely steep cliffs. Unlike other gull chicks which wander around as soon as they can walk, kittiwake chicks instinctively sit still in the nest to avoid falling off.{{cite book

| last = Tinbergen

| first = Niko

| title = Curious Naturalists

| publisher = American Museum of Natural History

| year = 1969

| location = Garden City, New York, USA

| pages = 301 }}

Juveniles take three years to reach maturity. When in winter plumage, both birds have a dark grey smudge behind the eye and a grey hind-neck collar. The sexes are visually indistinguishable.

Kittiwakes are coastal breeding birds ranging in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Arctic oceans. They form large, dense, noisy colonies during the summer reproductive period, often sharing habitat with murres. They are the only gull species that are exclusively cliff-nesting. A colony of kittiwakes living in Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in the north east of England has made homes on both the Tyne Bridge and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.{{Cite web |date=2018-11-01 |title=Tyne Kittiwake Colonies |url=https://www.tynekittiwakes.org.uk/tyne-kittiwake-colonies/ |access-date=2023-03-16 |website=Kittiwakes upon the Tyne |language=en-GB}} This colony is notable because it is the furthest inland colony of kittiwakes in the world.{{Cite web |date=2020-11-09 |title=Tyne Kittiwakes |url=https://www.nhsn.org.uk/tyne-kittiwakes/ |access-date=2023-03-16 |website=Natural History Society of Northumbria |language=en-GB}}

{{Species table |genus= Rissa |authority-name=Stephens |authority-year=1826 |species-count=two|no-note=y|narrow-percent=75}}

{{Species table/row

|name=black-legged kittiwake |binomial=Rissa tridactyla

|image=File:Rissa tridactyla 4.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=|image-caption=Adult

|image2 =File:Young Kittiwakes on Inner Farne - geograph.org.uk - 877310.jpg|image2-caption=Chick

|authority-name=Linnaeus|authority-year=1758 |authority-not-original=

|range= Breeding colonies can be found in the Pacific from the Kuril Islands, around the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk throughout the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands to southeast Alaska,{{in lang|ru}} Artyukhin Yu.B. and V.N. Burkanov (1999). Sea birds and mammals of the Russian Far East: a Field Guide, Moscow: АSТ Publishing – 215 p. and in the Atlantic from the Gulf of St. Lawrence through Greenland and the coast of Ireland down to Portugal, as well as in the high Arctic islands.{{Cite web |url=http://www.jncc.gov.uk/pdf/UKSPA/UKSPA-A6-87.pdf |title=U.K. Joint Nature Conservation Committee Report |access-date=2007-12-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204121709/http://www.jncc.gov.uk/pdf/UKSPA/UKSPA-A6-87.pdf |archive-date=2011-02-04 |url-status=dead }} In the winter, the range extends further south and out to sea.

|range-image=File:Rissa tridactyla area all.PNG

|range-image-size=180px

|size=It is one of the most numerous of seabirds.

|habitat=At sea or nesting on the sheerest sea cliffs.

|hunting=Fish, copepods, polychete and squids

|iucn-status=VU

|population=

|direction=

|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Two subspecies |bullets=on

| R. t. tridactyla (Linnaeus, 1758)

| R. t. pollicaris Ridgway, 1884

}}

}}

{{Species table/row

|name= red-legged kittiwake |binomial=Rissa brevirostris

|image=File:Red-legged Kittiwake RWD3.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=|image-caption=Adult

|image2 =File:Rissa brevirostris7.jpg|image2-caption=Chick

|authority-name=Bruch|authority-year= 1853|authority-not-original=

|range= Very limited range in the Bering Sea, breeding only on the Pribilof, Bogoslof, and Buldir islands in the United States, and the Commander Islands in Russia.

|range-image=File:Mapa Rissa brevirostris.png

|range-image-size=180px

|size=Adults are {{convert|35|-|39|cm|in|abbr=on}} long, with an {{convert|84|-|92|cm|in|abbr=on}} wingspan and a weight of {{convert|325|-|510|g|oz|abbr=on}}.CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), {{ISBN|978-0-8493-4258-5}}.

|habitat=On these islands, it shares some of the same cliff habitat as the black-legged kittiwake, though some localized segregation is seen between the species on given cliffs.

|hunting=

|iucn-status= VU

|population=

|direction=

|subspecies=

}}

{{Species table/end}}

File:Kittiwake w.jpg|Kittiwake – winter Ireland

File:Kittiwake with young chick.jpg|Kittiwake with chicks, Iceland

File:Rissa tridactyla -Staple Island, Farne Islands, Northumberland, England -adult and chicks-8.jpg|Farne Islands, England

{{Commons category|Rissa}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Charadriiformes|L.|state=collapsed}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q310848}}

Category:Kittiwakes

Category:Taxa named by James Francis Stephens