Sabine’s Gull
Photo: Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service from Anchorage, United States · Public domain

Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls

Sabine’s Gull

Xema sabini

LCLeast Concern
Family
Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls (Laridae)
Order
Charadriiformes

Overview

Sabine's gull ( SAY-bin; Xema sabini) is a small gull. It is usually treated as the only species placed in the genus Xema, though some authors include it with other gulls in a wide view of the genus Larus. It has also been known historically as fork-tailed gull or xeme (from the genus name). It breeds in colonies on Arctic coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a ground nest lined with grass.

Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Range and habitat

Breeds patchily on Arctic coasts of Greenland, Svalbard, and Siberia eastward to Chukotka Peninsula, St. Lawrence Island, western and northern Alaska, and Arctic Canada; winters coastal and offshore waters of northern South America to northern Chile and western Africa from Angola to southern Africa.

Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.

Sources and further reading

Last updated September 29, 2026.

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