Art by Barry Kent MacKay
An All-Creatures.org
Art and Photo Presentation

(Artwork - 089
Little Gull
(Hydrocoloceus minutus)

As its name implies, this is the smallest species of true gull in the world.  It is common in Eurasia, and in the early 1960s, they began to nest in North America, not far from where I live.  In fact, I know the first person to photograph the nest, and I knew the ornithologist, now departed, who obtained the documentary specimens, and I first saw the species where it first nested, in a large marsh on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.
 
It is still rare, yes, but regularly seen, and probably  some of the nest sites, scattered in parts of eastern North American marshes, have yet to be discovered.
 
The painting was done for the cover of a journal, Ontario Birds, that will contain an article about this species.   The adult in breeding plumage shows dark underwings, unlike otherwise similar small, black-headed gull species, and I was asked to show this feature.  I have also shown an immature bird, perched below.
 
The painting was done, approximately life-size, in acrylics on compressed hardboard (“Masonite”).

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