The Gull Guide: North America

Book by Amar Ayyash

Princeton University Press.  2024.  518 pages.  Flexbound.  $39.95.

The Gull guide is a monster.  Monstrously good.  Such richness!  Over 1,800 color photographs.  All of them heavily annotated.  Complete references.  Everything is thoroughly documented.  There is a glossary of 93 terms.

To give an idea of how comprehensive Ayyash has been, here is one example.  For Laughing Gull there are 27 photographs, 8 pages of text, a colorful range map, and sections on overview, taxonomy (including subspecies), range, identification, molt, and hybrids.

This richness of illustration is shown for all species, such as 22 photographs of Ross’s Gull, 28 for Black-legged Kittiwake, 17 Ivory Gull, 27 Bonaparte’s Gull, 30 Heermann’s Gull, American Herring Gull 90, European Herring Gull 38, Thayer’s Gull (Larus glaucoides thayeri) 46, Kumlien’s Gull (Larus glaucoides kumlieni) 50, and Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides glaucoides) 29. !!

Thirty-two species are treated thoroughly including such North American rarities as Swallow-tailed Gull, Gray-hooded Gull, Belcher’s Gull, Kamchatka Gull (race of Common Gull), Vega Gull, and Azores Gull, some of these still the subject of “antiquated classification” and/or have “taxonomic positions” unresolved.  Such complex situations are fully described, to the likely satisfaction of any gull aficionado, a growing sub-culture of birders.

Well-covered are the introductory sections dealing with gull topography, aging and molt, taxonomy, and eight facets of identification (variation, aberrations, nuances, caveats, and pitfalls, etc.).  Extreme rarities, esp. primarily Asian species or races of commoner forms here, are also investigated: Heuglin’s Gull, Taimyr Gull, Pallas’s Gull, and Gray Gull.  Especially helpful is the multi-colored, so-called “North American Gull Identification Chart” (p. 45) diagraming 6 features of 17 of our species., what might be called a “cheat sheet”, displaying leg color, orbital color, mantle shade, et al.

This is a detailed text giving some of us more than we may want to know.  But such as they may be can marvel at and appreciate the level of detail and the fine illustrative content.  Also included is a section treating the 7 most frequent hybrids.  With their hybridization, years before reaching adulthood, each year with unique plumages, and the tendency of many to wander, a complete monograph such as this is a resounding accomplishment.

Range maps in most bird books are mere representations, hints at where a species is found, lack great detail, and often of a scale that is not completely informative.  Such is the case here where the vast scale of some species’ distribution lends itself to suggestive occurrence in some areas.

For instance the map for American Herring Gull shows all of North America and the indication of its breeding range on our East Coast is almost impossible to detect on the map, although the text dealing with range describes this in some detail.

But the history of the species’ range extension is incomplete.  First breeding in Maryland was not until 1955 and 1956, a few pairs on Sharp’s Island found by Dick Kleen.  Prior to their range extension from northern NJ and Long Island they were known south of there as “Winter Gull”, since that was the time of year when almost all of them were seen.

Borrowing some of Dick’s bands I banded a few of those 1950s birds, sometimes swimming after the errant chicks.  One morning in the 1980s four of us recorded the nest contents of over 1,000 Herring Gulls on Smith I., MD, at Easter Point.  Such details are not possible here, but this book could have given some of them.

Another bugaboo with range maps is they sometimes display huge areas of the world or Northern Hemisphere when the range of some species comprises only very small parts of such.  This is less the situation here yet with the Ross’s Gull map displaying most of the world, it nevertheless shows with small red areas where this charismatic bird breeds.  Many range maps in various books are too small, postage stamp-sized.  Any range map problems here are more than compensated for in the text descriptions of range.

There is not much to nit pick here.  This is a virtuoso performance, yet another splendid monograph from Princeton.  Ayyash has contributed many of the fine photographs.  His list of references is impressive as is the thorough Acknowledgements section.  There is no other American gull monograph with this detail and quality and thoroughness.  A staggering, heroic, achievement, it is most highly recommended.