Franklin’s gull is a gull that lives on the prairies during the summer. It is also called the prairie pigeon. This bird breeds from southern Canada to Oregon and east to Iowa. It spends the winter from Louisiana to South America. Franklin’s gull is about 14 inches (36 centimeters) long. It is white, with a bluish-gray back. Its head and neck are dark gray in the summer but turn white in winter. It has a red bill tipped with black.
Flocks of these birds fly over the prairies, giving flutelike cries. Franklin’s gull makes its nest of rushes among the reeds of marshy lakes. Thousands of the birds form colonies of many nests fairly close together. By the end of May, the female has laid two or three eggs, dull brown to olive, with brown blotches. Franklin’s gull helps the farmer by eating many harmful insects.
