Saunders's Gull

Saunders's Gull (Saundersilarus saundersi) is a small East Asian gull with a black breeding hood, white eye crescents, dark red bill and grey wings. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It favours tidal mudflats and saltmarsh, picking crabs, mudskippers and other intertidal prey from exposed sediment. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).