So many, but they all took off except this one!

  • nautevenkidding@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Fyi, it’s called a “black-headed gull”.

    And “Lachmöwe” in German does not mean “laughing” gull either, but “puddle” gull, (Lache im Sinne von Pfütze, kleines stilles Gewässer)

    Edit: well, egg on my face. Its latin genus name is ridibundus, meaning laughing, and the German name is a transliteration of that. So it’s a false false friend that I (and other biologists I know) seem to have fallen for. Wikipedia references an ornithological work from 1971 for the “laughing” interpretation.

    TIL

    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      I don’t know German, sorry! My bird science friend called it a laughing gull so that’s what I’ve called them now!