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Rissa tridactyla (Black-legged
kittiwake)
Swartpootbrandervoël [Afrikaans]; Drieteenmeeuw [Dutch];
Mouette tridactyle [French]; Dreizehenmöwe [German]; Gaivota-tridáctila
[Portuguese]
Life
> Eukaryotes >
Opisthokonta
> Metazoa (animals) >
Bilateria >
Deuterostomia > Chordata >
Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates) > Gnathostomata (jawed
vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class:
Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned
fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial
vertebrates) > Tetrapoda
(four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota >
Reptilia (reptiles) >
Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria >
Dinosauria
(dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) >
Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves
(birds) > Order: Charadriiformes
> Family: Laridae
Distribution and habitat
Breeds on sea cliffs and buildings along the coasts of the
North Atlantic and North Pacific between 40-80° North, dispersing across the
oceans of the Northern Hemisphere.
It is a rare vagrant to southern Africa, recorded twice of the
coast of the south-western Cape, while it was once sighted ashore at Hermanus,
Western Cape in November 1987.
Food
It mainly eats fish and invertebrates, doing most of its
foraging by plucking prey from the surface of the sea.
References
-
Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ and Ryan PG 2005. Roberts
- Birds of southern Africa, VIIth ed. The Trustees of the John Voelcker
Bird Book Fund, Cape Town.
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