Black-legged kittiwake

Black-legged kittiwake
Adult black-legged kittiwake in Vardø, Norway
Calls, recorded on Skomer
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Laridae
Genus:	Rissa
Species:	R. tridactyla
Binomial name
Rissa tridactyla (Linnaeus, 1758)
Range of R. tridactyla   Summer range   Wintering range
Synonyms
Larus tridactylus Linnaeus, 1758 Larus rissa Linnaeus, 1766

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.