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prettygoodwordTheme week: birds!
kittiwake (KTI-ee-wayk) - n., either of two cliff-nesting gulls (Rissa tridactyla and Rissa brevirostris) that winter on the open ocean.
Smallish gulls with pale-grey black-tipped wings and a square-cut tail. In North America, R. tridactyla is known as the black-legged kittiwake and R. brevirostris is the red-legged kittiwake, but the latter is unknown in Europe and so the former is just the kittiwake there. The name comes from its cry: "a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'" as Wikipedia puts it.
---L.
kittiwake (KTI-ee-wayk) - n., either of two cliff-nesting gulls (Rissa tridactyla and Rissa brevirostris) that winter on the open ocean.
Smallish gulls with pale-grey black-tipped wings and a square-cut tail. In North America, R. tridactyla is known as the black-legged kittiwake and R. brevirostris is the red-legged kittiwake, but the latter is unknown in Europe and so the former is just the kittiwake there. The name comes from its cry: "a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'" as Wikipedia puts it.
---L.
