Southern Hemisphere Gull Seen in Wisconsin for the First Time, Drawing Tourists for a Rare Glimpse of the Out-of-Place Bird
The vagrant kelp gull mated with a local herring gull, though the chick did not survive. Experts say it’s a “complete mystery” how the bird came to nest so far north in the first place
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/headshot/gamillo007710829-005_0.png)
A kelp gull (Larus dominicanus)—a seabird species typically found in the Southern Hemisphere—has made an unlikely home on a warehouse roof along the coastline of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, astounding birders near and far.
It's the first known kelp gull to have ever made its way to Wisconsin, and it turns out that the bird also attempted breeding: The wandering gull found a herring gull to be its mate.
“Who knows why,” Tom Schultz, a bird expert and former president of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, tells Blake Eason for WISN 12 News. “Why do people or birds fall in love? But obviously, at some point, it fell in love with an American herring gull and decided to nest.”
Need to know: What is a vagrant bird?
Birds are known as vagrants when they appear far outside their normal range. This can happen if a storm blows them off-course from their migratory trajectory or if their internal compass gets mixed up, but scientists suspect there might be other complex factors at play. Climate change and environmental influences might push birds to change their breeding range, too.
Some local birders spotted the kelp gull back in May, but it may have been hanging around the Wisconsin area for longer. Some suspect it has been nesting in the same spot since last year, though birders didn’t notice its rarity until recently.
While the vagrant gull’s nesting spot is known, many of its other behaviors—like where it forages and loafs—are still uncertain, Schultz writes in a post for the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II. And exactly how the gull came to nest in Wisconsin remains a “complete mystery.”
Kelp gulls are typically found along coastlines in the Southern Hemisphere, especially in South America, New Zealand, Australia and Africa. But records of the species migrating to the United States go as far back as the late 1980s, when a few adult gulls were spotted on the Chandeleur Islands off the coast of Louisiana. There, the gulls nested with each other or interbred with similar-sized herring gulls to create gull hybrids. Researchers spent years observing the gulls on the Chandeleur Islands to see whether the hybrid birds—known as “Chandeleurs,” after the islands—could adapt and survive.
Until now, the Chandeleur Islands were the farthest north location that kelp gulls had ever been seen nesting, as Amar Ayyash, a gull expert and author of The Gull Guide: North America, says in a video from the American Birding Association. But the herring and kelp gull pair in Wisconsin has now earned that distinction.
The two were observed tending to their hybrid chick for a short time. However, the chick reportedly died in mid-June. Despite the failed nest, Schultz tells Paul A. Smith of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he suspects the kelp gull may remain in the Midwest.
Schultz first noticed the out-of-place bird last year, after taking some images of gulls around the warehouse roof for the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II project, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He originally thought it might be a type of black-backed gull, which are known in the area.
Schultz later sent the photos to other experts, including Ayyash, for verification. When Ayyash later visited the site to further observe the gull, he confirmed that it was a kelp gull by its distinctive black back and olive-colored legs.
“We wanted to wait to be absolutely sure, of course, because it’s the first state record. It’s all consistent with the species, yes,” says Ayyash to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Because of its rare appearance in the Northern Hemisphere, many birders are flocking to catch a glimpse of the vagrant gull. At least 300 people have already traveled to the Milwaukee area lakefront to try and spot the bird, per WISN 12 News.
In recent years, Wisconsin has had its fair share of rare, feathered visitors. In 2023, the state recorded its first sighting of a female flame-colored tanager. Later that same year, wild flamingos were seen along the shores of Lake Michigan for the first time. A roseate spoonbill, the first spotted in Wisconsin since 1845, also appeared in the state that year.
“This just reinforces that as birders we never know what we’re going to see or find,” Schultz says to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I enjoy that excitement and mystery and also sharing whatever it is. It’s a great community to be part of.”
