legs are orangish-red. First year Bonaparte's gulls have the same plumage in winter and summer, but the summer plumage is paler due to wear. Fewer than 5 percent of Bonaparte's gulls acquire a dark hood in their first summer, and on those that do, the hood is duller than on breeding adults. Distribution and habitat Bonaparte's gull breeds in boreal forest across southern Alaska and much of interior western Canada, as far east as central Quebec and south to within of the United States/Canada border. It avoids dense stands of conifers, instead choosing more open areas, such as the treed edges of bogs, fens, marshes, ponds, or islands. It typically nests within of open water. It winters along the coasts of North America, and in the Great Lakes. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe and the Azores, where it generally associates with black-headed gulls. In 2017 a breeding pair was spotted on Iceland. Behaviour They are migratory and most move east or west to coastal waters, also the Great Lakes. They are graceful in flight, more like terns. Feeding Like most gulls, Bonaparte's gull has a varied diet, with prey items changing over the course of the year, and from year to year. During the breeding season, it is largely insectivorous. It is known to quickly congregate in large numbers to take advantage of termite dispersal flights, circling over the emerging swarm and hovering briefly to take the insects in flight. It also gathers in large numbers to feed on the eggs of spawning salmon, alighting on the water and, if necessary, diving to take drifting eggs. During migration and into the winter, insects are first supplemented, then replaced by other food items, including fish, small crustaceans, mollusks, euphausiids, marine worms, and other invertebrates. At least one immature bird has been recorded as having fed on walnut meat. Bonaparte's gulls are known to engage in kleptoparasitism, and have been observed stealing earthworms from foraging dunlins and black-bellied plovers. Breeding Bonaparte's gulls begin breeding at two years of age; they are thought to be monogamous. The breeding season begins in mid-June. Courting pairs perform swooping display flights, calling loudly and diving at each other, and then drop down to perch on a branch. Crouched and facing each other, with neck and crown feathers erected and wings slightly raised, they scream at each other with bills opened wide, bobbing up