Photo: Dave Messmer
 Breeding evidence |
 Relative abundance |
 Probability of observation |
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Click on plot to view table of mean abundance
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Number of squares
Long-term BBS trends
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Mean abundance (number of birds detected per 5 min. point count) and percentage of squares occupied by region Bird Conservation Regions [abund. plot]
[%squares plot]
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Atlas Results
Atlas results coming soon
Note: During all years of the Saskatchewan Breeding Bird Atlas drought conditions persisted and the Atlas range maps for all waterfowl, waterbirds, and wetland-associated species should be viewed as characteristic of distribution and abundance during dry conditions. Read the full drought statement here.
Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
The Franklin's Gull is regularly seen in large flocks circling over farmers' fields. It is an opportunistic feeder (Burger and Gochfeld 2009), and preys upon crop-damaging insects and rodents left behind by tractors. The Franklin's is the only gull that breeds exclusively in freshwater marshes (Root 1988), nesting from north-central Alberta and central Saskatchewan south to a few marshes in the northwestern states. It winters from Guatemala south along the coast of Chile (AOU 1957).
The Franklin's Gull is observed mostly in large colonies in marshy freshwater lakes, as well as agricultural fields, shorelines, and landfills (Smith 2001). Franklin's Gulls are exclusively marsh nesters, constructing floating nests anchored to emergent vegetation (preferring bulrush in Saskatchewan). They generally choose marshes with stable water levels (Burger 1974, Burger and Gochfeld 2009, Smith 2001, Beyersbergen et al. 2009).
A common summer resident of Saskatchewan, the Franklin's Gull is found mainly south of the Precambrian Shield, but it has been recorded as far north as Lake Athabasca in spring (Smith 1996). Godfrey (1950) reported that R. P. Allen and R. H. Smith saw colonies at Kazan and Torch Lakes in 1947. Colonies have ranged in size from a minimum of a few hundred birds to an estimate of 165,000 birds in the air above the colony at the Wood River delta at the northeast corner of Old Wives Lake in June 2004 (Philip S. Taylor).
Original text by Catherine Soos and Molly Lux. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Franklin's Gull in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Franklin's Gull in Latremouille, L. M., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, C. B. Jardine, D. Lepage, A. R. Couturier, D. Evans, D. Iles, and K. L. Drake (eds.). 2025. The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Saskatchewan, 2017-2021. Birds Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan https://sk.birdatlas.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=FRGU&lang=en [16 Feb 2026]
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