Devon Wildlife Trust: The kittiwake is our most sea-loving gull, only turning up inland on odd occasions and spending winter out on the Atlantic. A medium-sized, elegant and gentle-looking gull, it eats fish, shrimps and worms, and does not scavenge at landfill sites like other gulls. It nests in colonies on clifftops and rock ledges from February until August; there are 380,000 pairs in the UK.
How to identify
The kittiwake is easily identifiable at its clifftop nesting colonies, particularly when you hear its 'kittiwake' call. Adults are silvery-grey above and white below, with a white head and black wingtips. Young birds have a black 'W' across their wings and back, a black neck-collar and a black band on their tail.
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/seabirds/kittiwake
Devon Birds: Search the Devon Birds website for recent sightings of Kittiwakes in Devon.
Birds of Lundy:
http://www.birdsoflundy.org.uk/index.php/species-updates/skuas-to-auks
RSPB: Kittiwakes are gentle looking, medium-sized gulls with a small yellow bill and a dark eye. They have a grey back with white underneath. Their legs are short and black. In flight the black wing-tips show no white, unlike other gulls, and look as if they have been 'dipped in ink'. The population is declining in some areas, perhaps due to a shortage of sandeels. After breeding birds move out into the Atlantic where they spend the winter.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/kittiwake/
JNCC: As well as being the most numerous species of gull in the world, the black-legged kittiwake is the most oceanic in its habits and most adapted to nesting on vertical rocky sea-cliffs. In Britain and Ireland, the largest and most numerous colonies are found along the North Sea coasts of Britain, around Orkney and Shetland, and off north-west Scotland.
https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/black-legged-kittiwake-rissa-tridactyla/
Wikipedia: The black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rissa_tridactyla_area_all.PNG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-legged_kittiwake
Ebird: Small gull that nests in colonies on cliffs and structures overhanging water. Mainly pelagic, spending most of its time at sea. Rare inland. Adults show solid black wingtips that look like they were dipped in ink. Entirely yellow bill. Immatures are boldly patterned with black collar and "M" pattern on wings. Feeds on fish at the surface.
https://ebird.org/species/bklkit
