Bonaparte's Gull is a small, delicate, almost tern-like gull that brings a touch of elegance to Michigan's migration. Buoyant and graceful in flight, it flashes a bright white triangle along the leading edge of the wing as it flutters and dips over the water. Breeding adults have a slate-black hood and a thin black bill; the birds seen in migration and winter usually show a clean white head marked only with a small dark spot behind the eye. It often picks food daintily from the surface in flight rather than swimming to feed.
Unusual among gulls, Bonaparte's Gull nests in spruce trees in the boreal forest rather than on the ground, and it comes to Michigan only as a migrant and winter visitor. Large, loose flocks gather on the Great Lakes, large lakes, and river mouths in spring and fall, foraging over the water for insects and small fish, and some linger through winter on open water. Named not for the emperor but for his ornithologist nephew, it is a favorite find among the state's migrating waterbirds.
Feeds on aquatic insects, small fish, and other invertebrates, often picking prey delicately from the water's surface in buoyant, fluttering flight, and also foraging while swimming. During migration it takes advantage of insect hatches and small fish concentrated on lakes and river mouths.
Not the French emperor, but his nephew Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a noted ornithologist. The gull honors his contributions to the study of North American birds.
It is a small, delicate, tern-like gull with a white wedge on the leading edge of the wing. Breeding adults have a black hood and thin black bill; migrants and winter birds show a white head with a small dark ear spot.
Unusually for a gull, it nests in spruce trees in the boreal forest. In Michigan it occurs as a migrant and winter visitor, gathering on the Great Lakes, large lakes, and river mouths in spring and fall, with some staying through winter.
The black hood is breeding plumage worn in spring and summer. Nonbreeding adults have a white head with a dark ear spot, and first-year birds add a dark bar across the wing and a black tail band.
A colony when nesting and simply a flock otherwise. Bonaparte's Gulls are unusual among gulls in nesting in trees rather than on the ground, and migrating flocks feed buoyantly, almost like terns.
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