Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda (B), Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada (B), Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica (B) (NB), Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands (B) (P), USA (B), Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British) (B) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (B) (NB).
Vagrant to Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Gambia, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Northern Mariana Islands, Pitcairn Islands, Portugal, Samoa, Senegal, Spain, St Pierre and Miquelon (P), Sweden, United Kingdom, United States Minor Outlying Islands.
Population
Estimated population is 810,000 - 840,000 (2010).
Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) [XC669357]
by Valerie Heemstra from Veteran\u2019s Memorial Fishing Pier (near Edgewater), Volusia County, Florida, Netherlands (begging call, call)
Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) [XC565553]
by Isain Contreras Rodr\u00edguez from El Islote, Mexico (call, hatchling or nestling)
Subspecies
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
megalopterus (Bruch, 1855) - South-eastern California to western Mexico (Jalisco), and Nova Scotia to Florida and Texas, locally through eastern Central America. Winters south to southern Peru.
atricilla Linnaeus, 1758 - West Indies to Trinidad and islands off Venezuela. Winters south to northern Brazil.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9