Black-legged kittiwake: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the black-legged kittiwake lives – recorded in 24 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Rissa tridactyla
Group	Waders, gulls, terns & auks
Status	Vulnerable (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	24 countries
Continents	Asia, Europe, North America
Mass	443 g (male organism, adult weight); 393 g (female organism, adult weight)
Class	Bird
Order	Charadriiformes
Family	Laridae

Where does the black-legged kittiwake live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the black-legged kittiwake in 24 countries and territories across Asia, Europe and North America. Wikidata gives its range as: Africa, South America.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

How big is a black-legged kittiwake?

Wikidata records the following for the black-legged kittiwake: mass 443 g (male organism, adult weight); 393 g (female organism, adult weight).

Is the black-legged kittiwake endangered?

The black-legged kittiwake’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Vulnerable” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the black-legged kittiwake?

The black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a bird in the order Charadriiformes and the family Laridae, genus Rissa. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the black-legged kittiwake

The black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Larus tridactylus. The English name is derived from its call, a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'. In North America, this species is known as the black-legged kittiwake to differentiate it from the red-legged kittiwake, but in Europe, where it is the only member of the genus, it is often known just as kittiwake.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Black-legged kittiwake (revision 1371827325), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q26612 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).