Population status

Little Gull
(Hydrocoloeus minutus)

None of the major bird surveys provide reliable results to assess the change in population status for Little Gull in Canada. Very small numbers of Little Gulls (< 20/year) were recorded breeding in Ontario between 1962 and 1989 and in the Canadian sub-Arctic, around Hudson Bay (Ewins and Weseloh 1999, Jehl 2004). Since 1989, there have been no breeding records outside the sub-Arctic, but birds occur regularly on passage in southern Ontario, as well as on Christmas Bird Counts on the Niagara River and the east coast of the United States east coast (Weseloh 1994). Given the disappearance as a breeder in Ontario, it seems likely that the species has decreased, but the degree of change is unknown and the reliability of this assessment is considered low.

 

 

 

References