Scientific name:
Rissa tridactyla

Natural spread:
North-Atlantic

from the other seagulls distinguishes the three-toe-seagull through the absence of the fourth, rear toe, for itself externally. Also its holding back shows peculiarities: So it spends the winter on open sea where it lives from surface-fishings push-diving.

Reproduction In the incubation, from end May in the southern areas until beginning July in the north, the three-toe-seagulls put usually only two eggs in one from seaweed, moss, grass, mud and excrement aimed nest. This is falling away steep-walls on narrow rock-ledges at vertically into the sea preferably to find. Both partners mold a stone-hard pedestal from the Nistmaterialien through continuous party-clump here. Three-toe-seagulls have special adaptations to these uncommon Nistplätze in its behavioral-repertoire: The nest-precinct includes only the actual nest, rival-fights between precinct-neighbors run after other rituals from as with the seagull-types with flat, spacious brood-areas. The squabs of pronounced place-stools still are and abandoned the nest only with the fully-fledged-development in the age of approximately 43 days. Both parents-animals incubate the eggs for 21-30 days and look after also the nestlings together, with what also the feed-transfer of the others seagull-manner differs. Also, the Dunenkleider of the nestlings are much showier than with ground-brooding seagulls. The brood-colonies of gigantic sizes can often reach so that the reputations of the birds fill the air with deafening noise.

Spread These seagulls are given a home the Färöer in the North-Atlantic of North America over Greenland, Iceland, as far as to the British islands, North-France, Denmark and Norway. North also from the polar circle at the ice-sea-coasts as far as to North-Siberia settles three-toe-seagulls in large number. In the German area, it is only on Helgoland brood-bird, however is lost smaller groups far in the inland in the winter occasionally. With the hikes, three-toe-seagulls rarely reach the Mediterranean, in the Atlantic, they spend the winter until Madeira southwards, frequent winter-quarters are also the north and Baltic sea. As ring-findings show, certain populations undertake wide trains between North America and Eurasia.