Larus brachyrhynchus
Status: Rare regular winter visitor Lake McConaughy, rare casual elsewhere.
Documentation: Photograph: 11 May 1996 Keith Co (Brogie 1997).
Taxonomy: No subspecies are recognized (AviList 2025).
Olsen and Larsson (2004) and AviList (2025) treated North American brachyrhynchus as a full species split from L. canus Common Gull, retaining within the latter the three Eurasian taxa, although Howell and Dunn (2007) considered brachyrhynchus, kamtschatschensis, and canus (including heinei) three full species. Distinctness of brachyrhynchus was confirmed by Chesser et al (2021) based on vocal, morphological and genetic differences.
The English name Mew Gull was changed to Short-billed Gull to avoid ambiguous uses of “Mew Gull” for different combinations of the original four taxa included in Mew/Common Gull.
Nebraska birds are presumed brachyrhynchus; L. c. canus occurs as a vagrant to northeast North America and L. c. kamtschatschensis is a rare vagrant to western Alaska (Pyle 2008; Howell and Dunn 2007).
Winter: Nov 26, 27, 29 <<<>>> Apr 12, 12, 13
Earlier dates are 22 Oct 2021 juvenile Lake Minatare, Scotts Bluff Co, 6-9 Nov 2002 adult Gavin’s Point Dam, Cedar Co (Brogie 2003, 2004), 11 Nov 2011 basic adult Harlan Co Reservoir (Brogie 2012), and 14 Nov 2022 Lake McConaughy, Keith Co.
Later dates are 18-19 Apr 1998 alternate adult Lake McConaughy, Keith Co (Brogie 1999), 19 Apr 1998 adult Lake McConaughy (Silcock and Jorgensen 1998), 21 Apr 2018 Lake Ogallala (Brogie 2019), and 11 May 1996 adult Keith Co (Brogie 1997).
Most of the 29+ records are from large reservoirs, notably Lake McConaughy, as well as Harlan County Reservoir, Harlan Co and Branched Oak Lake, Lancaster Co. At Lake McConaughy there are at least 13 records, Harlan County Reservoir seven records, and Branched Oak Lake/ Pawnee Lake four records. Elsewhere, there are these records: 22 Oct 2021 Lake Minatare, Scotts Bluff Co, 6-9 Nov 2002 Gavin’s Point Dam, Cedar Co, 26-28 Nov 2010 Gavin’s Point Dam, Cedar Co, 27 Nov 2002 Bazile Creek, Knox Co, and 6-22 Dec Johnson Lake, Gosper Co.
Images
Abbreviations
SL: Sewage Lagoons
Literature Cited
AviList Core Team, 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025.
Brogie, M.A. 1997. 1996 (Eighth) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 65: 115-126.
Brogie, M.A. 1999. 1998 (Tenth) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 67: 141-152.
Brogie, M.A. 2003. 2002 (14th) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 71: 136-142.
Brogie, M.A. 2004. 2003 (15th) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 72: 59-65.
Brogie, M.A. 2012. 2011 (23rd) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 80: 112-122.
Brogie, M.A. 2019. 2018 (30th) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 87: 96-109.
Chesser, R.T., S.M. Billerman, K.J. Burns, C. Cicero, J.L. Dunn, B.E. Hernandez-Banos, A.W. Kratter, I.J. Lovette, N.A. Mason, P.C. Rasmussen, J.V. Remsen, Jr., D.F. Stotz, and K. Winkler. 2021. Sixty-second Supplement to the American Ornithological Society’s Check-list of North American Birds. Ornithology Vol 138; https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukab037.
Howell, S.N.G., and J. Dunn. 2007. Gulls of the Americas. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, New York, USA.
Moskoff, W., and L.R. Bevier. 2021. Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.mewgul2.01.1.
Olsen, K.M., and H. Larsson. 2004. Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
Pyle, P. 2008. Identification Guide to North American Birds. Part II, Anatidae to Alcidae. Slate Creek Press, Bolinas, California, USA.
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 1998. Spring Field Report, March to May 1998. NBR 66: 30-55.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2025. Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 11 Jul 2025