Gull [SEP] parent taxon
Gull
Gulls or seagulls are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns (family Sternidae) and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed in the genus "Larus", but this arrangement is now considered polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection of several genera. An older name for gulls is mews, cognate with German "Möwe", Danish "måge", Dutch "meeuw"
" is Ancient Greek and means "resembling".
It is migratory, wintering from in the North Atlantic as far south as the British Isles and northernmost states of the eastern United States, as well as in the interior of North America as far west as the western Great Lakes. It is much scarcer in Europe than the similar glaucous gull.
The American taxon Kumlien's gull is often considered a subspecies, "L. g. kumlieni", of Iceland gull. The taxon Thayer's gull is considered a subspecies,