Kelp gull in Milwaukee, the first recorded in Wisconsin, has the birding world buzzing

Milwaukee is hosting a unique visitor. Or perhaps new resident.

In either case it's a Wisconsin first.

And it has the birding world buzzing.

A kelp gull, a species typically found along coasts in the Southern Hemisphere, is frequenting the roof of a building along the city's Lake Michigan shore.

The kelp gull in Milwaukee has been positively identified and carefully documented by multiple experts in recent weeks, including Amar Ayyash of Chicago, author of "A Gull Guide: North America."

The bird is a "slam dunk" to be recognized by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology as the first state record for the species, according to Mark Korducki of Franklin, a former WSO rare bird committee member and current eBird reviewer.

And it has birders traveling to Milwaukee from near and far to see the handsome, black-and-white gull. For almost all, it's a "lifer," a new species added to their life lists.

To many Wisconsinites all of the squawking, whitish birds along our lakefronts are known as "sea gulls." In fact there is no species with that name.

But Wisconsin is home to about 20 gull species, including the most common, the Herring and ring-billed, as well as many similar species such as terns.

It will never be known how a kelp gull ended up in Brew City. A small population is found in Louisiana but it's extremely rare for the species to travel this far north.

What is known is how it was identified, and that a local benefit bike ride had added dividends.

In 2024, Tom and Wendy Schultz of Green Lake participated in the Ride for the Arts, a charity ride that includes a route across the Hoan Bridge in downtown Milwaukee.

The husband and wife are avid birders and longtime members of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology. Tom Schultz brought his camera along on the ride and, as part of an educational piece he was compiling on gull nesting colonies for the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II project, he took a few photos of gulls nesting on Milwaukee roofs.

Months later when Schultz started to process and crop the images, he noticed a very dark gull on a roof beneath the Hoan.

He initially thought it might be a lesser black-backed gull, a species known in the region. But he wanted others to look at it.

So he shared it with Nick Anich, a Department of Natural Resources conservation biologist who is leading the WBBA II. Anich also had questions about the bird's ID, so he reached out to Ayyash.

Even Ayyash, author of the gull guide and widely acknowledged as one of world's foremost authorities on gulls, couldn't be sure. So Ayyash visited Milwaukee this spring to try to view and photograph the bird. Remarkably, it was still around.

Working with Schultz and others, Ayyash was able to get enough documentation, including open wing images, to say with certainty: it was a kelp gull.

"Everything added up," Ayyash said June 17 as he looked at the bird once more. "We wanted to wait to be absolutely sure, of course, because it's the first state record. It's all consistent with the species, yes."

That includes behavior. The kelp gull in Milwaukee apparently mated with a Herring gull and the pair had a chick. Both adults were seen tending the chick in recent weeks; however, the chick perished in mid-June.

The two species are known to hybridize, Ayyash said. In fact the offspring of a kelp and Herring is called a "Chandeleur," named after the islands off the coast of Louisiana where kelp gulls have been seen since the late 1980s, according to Audubon.

Kelp and Herring gulls are approximately the same size.

A kelp gull stands near its nest on a roof along the Milwaukee shore of Lake Michigan. The bird, which mated with a Herring gull, is the first of its species documented in Wisconsin. Kelp gulls are typically found in the Southern Hemisphere.

News of the kelp gull in Milwaukee has spread and attracted visitors to the lakefront site.

A dozen birders gathered June 17 in the shade and rumble of the Hoan Bridge to view the bird. The group included Ayyash, as well as Greg Neise of Chicago, webmaster for the American Birding Association.

Jennifer Ambrose of Milwaukee had a shorter trip to see the bird. It was "actually 5 minutes from my house" to add the bird to her life list.

Adam Kneuppel and his 8-month-old daughter Owlsley came from Fond du Lac, too. Owlsley was no doubt the youngest to see Wisconsin's first kelp gull. Kneuppel had a copy of Ayyash's gull guide in a pocket of his daughter's stroller.

The person who came the farthest June 17 was likely Ted Wolff of Green Valley, Arizona. He was on a birding trip in Nebraska when he heard the news.

Amar Ayyash of Chicago, right, speaks with Ted Wolff of Green Valley, Arizona on June 17, 2025 as the men and other birders gather to view a kelp gull along the Milwaukee lakefront. Ayyash is a gull expert and author of "The Gull Guide: North America."

"You know what, I was 850 miles from Milwaukee and that was twice as close as I would have been if I was at home," Wolff said. "It wasn't that hard of a decision for me."

The kelp gull was bird species 819 on Wolff's life list.

Ayyash said many gull species are very adaptable and can live in close proximity to humans and human development. Roofs often provide "islands" of safety for nesting and roosting, he said.

It's not known if the loss of the chick will cause the kelp gull to leave the area.

But based on its presence over the last year, there's a decent chance it will stick around, Schultz said.

"This just reinforces that as birders we never know what we're going to see or find," Schultz said. "I enjoy that excitement and mystery and also sharing whatever it is. It's a great community to be part of."

Greg Neise of the American Birding Association displays an image he captured of a kelp gull in Milwaukee. It's the first documented sighting of the species in Wisconsin.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kelp gull in Milwaukee, the first recorded in Wisconsin, has the birding world buzzing