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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Kittiwake

Kittiwake \Kit"ti*wake\ (k[i^]t"t[i^]*w[=a]k), n. (Zo["o]l.) A northern gull ( Rissa tridactyla), inhabiting the coasts of Europe and America. It is white, with black tips to the wings, and has only three toes.

Wiktionary
kittiwake

alt. Either of two small gulls in the genus ''Rissa'' of the family Laridae that nest in colony on sea cliffs and spend the winter on the open ocean. n. Either of two small gulls in the genus ''Rissa'' of the family Laridae that nest in colony on sea cliffs and spend the winter on the open ocean.

WordNet
kittiwake

n. small pearl-gray gull of northern regions; nests on cliffs and has a rudimentary hind toe

Wikipedia
Kittiwake

The kittiwakes ( genus Rissa) are two closely related seabird species in the gull family Laridae, the black-legged kittiwake (R. tridactyla) and the red-legged kittiwake (R. brevirostris). The epithets "black-legged" and "red-legged" are used to distinguish the two species in North America, but in Europe, where R. brevirostris is not found, the black-legged kittiwake is often known simply as kittiwake, or more colloquially in some areas as tickleass or tickleace. The name is derived from its call, a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'. The genus name Rissa is from the Icelandic name Rita for the black-legged kittiwake.

Kittiwake (disambiguation)

Kittiwake is the name of two species of gull. It may also be:

Usage examples of "kittiwake".

Among the myriad colonies of close-set mussels, which gave a blue bloom, like that of the sloe, to the weed-covered boulders, a few kittiwakes and dotterels flitted to and fro.

Sea birds circled the ship all day long, so that they got used to the sight of fulmars and kittiwakes, awks, and mers: a plenitude of food if ever they were in short supply.

Kittiwakes and terns wheeled in gyres far above, and a heavy-bodied gull seemed to hang immobile in the air nearby, riding the wind as we sculled slowly out into the harbor mouth.

I recognized kittiwakes and puffins among the seabirds on the grey gneiss rocks along the shore, and marveled that I knew the names of birds and stone.

A strangely tense silence predominated, broken only by the intermittent cries of kittiwakes wheeling and diving above the frozen marshes beyond the perimeter fence, and the humming of a motor generator supplying power from one of the parked trailers.

The kittiwakes nested on all available upper storey window ledges along the river front, distempering walls with their droppings.

Into the vista he was crowding everything Erasmus had described to him, the whales and belugas and seals and walrus churning through the water, the fulmars and guillemots whirring and diving, the murres and kittiwakes guarding their eggs from the foxes.

She spied huge-winged kittiwakes, fulmars and jet-black guillemots.

Guillemots, gannets, puffins, razor-bills, little auks, kittiwakes.

The wall itself was pocked with ledges and pits where birds nested: guillemots, murres, kittiwakes and gulls.

Silent, silent: for neither snort of walrus, nor wawl of fox, nor screech of kittiwake, did I hear: but all was still as the jet-black shadow of cliff and glacier on the sea.