Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls
Black-legged Kittiwake
Rissa tridactyla
VUVulnerable
- Family
- Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls (Laridae)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
Overview
The black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Larus tridactylus. The English name is derived from its call, a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'. In North America, this species is known as the black-legged kittiwake to differentiate it from the red-legged kittiwake, but in Europe, where it is the only member of the genus, it is often known just as kittiwake.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Countries
- Algeria
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Cape Verde
- China
- Cuba
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Estonia
- Faroe Islands
- Finland
- French Guiana
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Greenland
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Latvia
- Mauritania
- Mexico
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Russia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Suriname
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Western Sahara
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Black-legged kittiwake
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
