Gulls & Terns in District of Columbia
Our list for District of Columbia has 9 gulls & terns recorded regularly there: 1 resident, 4 winter visitors and 4 passage migrants
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in District of Columbia in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 9, most common first
Ring-billed GullLarus delawarensisWinter visitorCommon43–54 cmRegularly Jul–May
American Herring GullLarus smithsonianusWinter visitorCommon53–65 cmRegularly Aug–Apr
Great Black-backed GullLarus marinusWinter visitorCommon64–79 cmRegularly Nov–Mar
Bonaparte's GullChroicocephalus philadelphiaPassage migrantUncommon28–38 cmRegularly Oct–May
Lesser Black-backed GullLarus fuscusWinter visitorUncommon52–64 cmRegularly Nov–Mar
Iceland GullLarus glaucoidesPassage migrantUncommon52–60 cmRegularly Dec
Forster's TernSterna forsteriResidentUncommon33–36 cmRegularly Apr–Oct
Black TernChlidonias nigerPassage migrantRare22–26 cmRegularly May–Sep
Common TernSterna hirundoPassage migrantRare31–35 cmRegularly May–Sep
Smallest to largest
Length, cmData: EOD – eBird Observation Dataset (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), accessed via GBIF.org, CC BY 4.0. Records from 2019–2024, aggregated and filtered by Birdfact. How these lists are made