The Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus) is the world's smallest gull, with a sooty black head in breeding plumage, a diagnostic blackish-grey underwing, and a fluttery, almost butterfly-like flight. At just 25–30 cm long, with a wingspan of 70–78 cm and a weight of 85–135 grams, it is barely bigger than a tern. Breeding adults show an entirely sooty black head, pale grey upperside and clean white tail, but the surest mark in any plumage is the underwing — dark slate-grey with only a narrow white trailing edge, unique among Sweden's gulls. The wings are broad and rounded, the flight light and fluttering, often low over the water, and young birds show a dark M-shaped band across the upperwing. The call is a hoarse, short, somewhat cackling "ke-ke-ke", lighter and thinner than that of the larger gulls.
The species breeds thinly in central and southern Sweden, chiefly at nutrient-rich lowland lakes and shallow bays, with a population of roughly 500–1,500 pairs that varies from year to year. Good sites include bird lakes such as Hornborgasjön, Tåkern and Kvismaren from April to August, and it is also seen migrating along the coasts; it is a short-distance migrant, wintering mainly in Western and Southern Europe and around the Mediterranean. It nests in loose colonies, often alongside Black-headed Gulls or terns for shared protection against predators, building a simple platform of plant material in low, damp shoreline vegetation, where the female lays 2–3 eggs incubated by both parents. It feeds largely on insects, caught elegantly in the air or picked from the water surface during light, searching flight, along with small fish and aquatic invertebrates.
Read about this species in Swedish →