Sabine's gull

Sabine's gull
Adult in Iceland
NonBreeding plumage, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
Genus: Xema
Leach, 1819
Species:
X. sabini
Binomial name
Xema sabini
(Sabine, 1819)
Sabine islands, near Melville Bay, west coast of Greenland
Range
  Breeding
  Migration
  Non-breeding

Sabine's gull (/ˈsbn/ SAY-bine or /ˈsæbn/ SAB-ine) (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. Sabine's gull is pelagic outside the breeding season. It takes a wide variety of mainly animal food, and will eat any suitable small prey.