Where can you see the Laughing Gull?
Some of the best places to see the Laughing Gull in the wild include Sarigua National Park (Panama), Darién National Park (Panama) and Parque Nacional de Galápagos (Ecuador) — among 77 wildlife hotspots across 10 countries, including the United States, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico. Every hotspot below shows real sighting data and the best seasons to visit.
Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor, United States
+291 birds+27 mammals
Where the Maine coast rises in granite cliffs and spruce-clad headlands, Acadia National Park unfolds across Mount Desert Island and its surrounding waters, a landscape carved…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKAlligator River National Wildlife Refuge
Dare County, United States
+288 birds+17 mammals
Where the coastal plain of North Carolina meets the Albemarle Peninsula, a sprawling mosaic of freshwater marshes, pocosins, and swamp forest creates one of the Atlantic…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYAntisana National Park
Quijos, Ecuador
+432 birds+21 mammals
Where the eastern Andean slopes descend into the Amazon basin, Antisana National Park sprawls across roughly 2,500 square kilometers of some of South America's most dramatic…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKArenal Volcano National Park
Peñas Blancas, Costa Rica
+551 birds+21 mammals
Straddling the border between Alajuela and Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica, this national park rises dramatically around one of Central America's most active volcanic systems. The…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKArrecifes de Cozumel National Park
San Miguel de Cozumel, Mexico
+112 birds+4 mammals
Beneath the turquoise shallows of the western Caribbean, Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park protects a sprawling marine realm across 484 square kilometres off the Quintana Roo…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKBarra del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge
Tortuguero, Costa Rica
+462 birds+36 mammals
Where the Caribbean's restless waters meet the Limón Province coastline, Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Sanctuary unfolds across a landscape of extraordinary ecological complexity. This equatorial…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYBic National Park
Rimouski, Canada
+250 birds+9 mammals
Where the St. Lawrence River meets the Gaspé Peninsula, a rugged coastline of forests, wetlands, and rocky shores unfolds across nearly 95 square kilometres of protected…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKBiscayne National Park
Miami-Dade County, United States
+263 birds+7 mammals
Coral reefs and mangrove shallows dominate this marine sanctuary where the Florida Keys meet the Atlantic, creating a mosaic of shallow seagrass meadows, patch reefs, and…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKBitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Chaves County, United States
+284 birds+10 mammals
Across the high desert floor of southeastern New Mexico, where elevation and aridity shape every living thing, shallow alkaline lakes and marshes form an unexpected oasis…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYBlackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Fishing Creek, United States
+293 birds+15 mammals
Tidal marshes and brackish waterways define this wildlife sanctuary where the Chesapeake Bay's influence reshapes the landscape with every rise and fall of the water. Shallow…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYBombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
Kent County, United States
+323 birds+15 mammals
Tidal marshes and brackish shallows define this sanctuary on Delaware's Atlantic coast, where the meeting of freshwater and salt creates some of the Mid-Atlantic's most dynamic…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYCahuita National Park
Talamanca, Costa Rica
+359 birds+15 mammals
Where the Caribbean shoreline dissolves into mangrove creeks and coral gardens, Cahuita's mosaic of habitats unfolds across the Limón coast. The park's signature feature—a living coral…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKCaño Negro National Wildlife Refuge
Caño Negro District, Costa Rica
+486 birds+16 mammals
Where the San Juan River's seasonal floodplain opens into expansive wetlands, Caño Negro Wildlife Sanctuary sprawls across one of Central America's most productive freshwater ecosystems. This…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYCape Breton Highlands National Park
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Canada
+215 birds+18 mammals
Where the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia rises in weathered cliffs and glacially carved valleys, Cape Breton Highlands National Park spans a landscape where boreal and…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKCarara National Park
Tárcoles, Costa Rica
+397 birds+19 mammals
Where the Pacific coastal plain meets transitional forest, Carara National Park straddles one of Central America's most dynamic ecological boundaries. The park's landscape encompasses lowland deciduous…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKChagres National Park
Caimitillo, Panama
+486 birds+19 mammals
Where the Chagres River carves through the humid tropics of central Panama, a vast montane and lowland forest sprawls across more than 2,300 square kilometers, anchoring…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKChassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge
Homosassa, United States
+299 birds+14 mammals
Where the Gulf of Mexico's coastal marshes dissolve into brackish tidal flats and mangrove thickets, the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Sanctuary near Homosassa represents one of Florida's…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYChincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
Chincoteague, United States
+362 birds+16 mammals
Across the barrier islands and salt marshes of Virginia's Eastern Shore, where Atlantic tides sculpt an intricate mosaic of sandy spits and tidal flats, lies one…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYCoiba National Park
Montijo, Panama
+260 birds+10 mammals
An archipelago of volcanic and sedimentary islands rises from the Pacific waters off Panama's southwestern coast, its densest rainforest canopy unbroken for millennia. Coiba National Park…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKCorcovado National Park
Puerto Jiménez, Costa Rica
+444 birds+48 mammals
Where the Osa Peninsula juts into the Pacific, rainforest descends almost to the tide line, and Corcovado National Park protects one of Central America's most intact…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKCotopaxi National Park
Mulaló, Ecuador
+211 birds+6 mammals
High in Ecuador's volcanic corridor, where the páramo transitions into cloud forest along the slopes of Cotopaxi volcano, the national park unfolds across nearly 500 square…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKCurú National Wildlife Refuge
Paquera, Costa Rica
+249 birds+8 mammals
Where the Pacific coast of Puntarenas dissolves into dry deciduous forest and mangrove fringe, Curú Wildlife Sanctuary holds one of Costa Rica's most ecologically vital yet…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYD’Anticosti National Park
Anticosti Island, Canada
+115 birds+3 mammals
Where boreal forest meets the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Anticosti Island rises as one of North America's largest and most pristine wilderness preserves. Spanning roughly 2,266…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKDarién National Park
Tucutí, Panama
+534 birds+13 mammals
Where the spine of Central America crumbles into wetland and rainforest, Darién National Park sprawls across more than 20,000 square kilometres of some of the tropics'…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKDirigida Laguna de Gallocanta Nature Reserve
Las Cuerlas, Spain
+250 birds+7 mammals
Where continental steppe meets the vast mirror of inland water, Spain's largest natural lagoon reveals a landscape of haunting beauty. The shallow alkaline lake, cradled in…
VIEW NATURE RESERVEDon Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Fremont, United States
+286 birds+20 mammals
Where the San Francisco Bay's shallow margins dissolve into tidal salt marshes and mudflats, this wildlife sanctuary preserves one of California's most ecologically vital estuarine systems.…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYEl Vizcaíno
Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico
+317 birds+29 mammals
Where the Baja California peninsula thins into a tapestry of salt lagoons and coastal desert, one of Mexico's most biodiverse reserves sprawls across half a million…
VIEW BIOSPHERE RESERVEEverglades National Park
Monroe County, United States
+345 birds+22 mammals
Where freshwater marsh meets subtropical sky, the Everglades sprawls across southwestern Florida as one of North America's most expansive wetland ecosystems. Spanning over 13,000 square kilometers,…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKFarallon National Wildlife Refuge
San Francisco, United States
+384 birds+16 mammals
Windswept granite peaks rising abruptly from the Pacific, the Farallon Islands form a wildlife sanctuary of extraordinary seabird abundance and ecological significance just twenty-seven miles west…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYGandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge
Manzanillo, Costa Rica
+394 birds+18 mammals
Where the Caribbean coastal plain surrenders to water-logged forest and mangrove tangles, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Sanctuary shelters one of Costa Rica's most biodiverse lowland wetland ecosystems. The…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYGreat White Heron National Wildlife Refuge
Monroe County, United States
+118 birds+3 mammals
Shallow mangrove bays and salt-marsh flats sprawl across Monroe County's coastal sanctuary, where brackish water meets the Florida Keys' distinctive transition zone between temperate and subtropical…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYGros Morne National Park
Canada
+180 birds+19 mammals
Where glacier-carved fjords pierce the interior of Newfoundland, Gros Morne National Park unfolds across nearly four thousand square kilometres of some of Canada's most dramatic coastal…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKGulf Islands National Park Reserve
Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area, Canada
+268 birds+26 mammals
Scattered across the Salish Sea in British Columbia's southwestern corner, this national park reserve stitches together a fragmented archipelago of forested islands and rocky outcrops where…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKHavasu National Wildlife Refuge
Lake Havasu City, United States
+291 birds+8 mammals
Where the Colorado River widens into a vast reservoir in the Sonoran Desert, Havasu National Wildlife Sanctuary protects one of the most critical wetland ecosystems in…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYImperial National Wildlife Refuge
La Paz County, United States
+222 birds+4 mammals
Where the Colorado River carves through the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona, Imperial National Wildlife Sanctuary unfolds across a landscape shaped by water and aridity. The…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYIndiana Dunes National Park
Porter, United States
+304 birds+15 mammals
Along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, where glacial geology meets temperate woodland and open water, sprawls a landscape of extraordinary ecological complexity. The dunes themselves—massive…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKJ.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge
Sanibel, United States
+277 birds+6 mammals
Mangrove channels and coastal marshlands dominate this 6,400-acre sanctuary on Florida's Gulf coast, where brackish waterways weave between dense stands of red, black, and white mangrove…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYKīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge
Kilauea, United States
+79 birds+1 mammals
At the northernmost tip of Kauai, where the Pacific trades collide with volcanic rock, Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Sanctuary crowns a dramatic headland overlooking one of…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYKolkheti National Park
Nigvziani, Georgia
+60 birds+1 mammals
Where the Caucasus descends to meet the Black Sea, a mosaic of wetlands, reed beds, and coastal lagoons creates one of the Mediterranean's most biodiverse refuges.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKLaguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
Cameron County, United States
+365 birds+19 mammals
Where coastal prairie meets shallow lagoon along the southernmost tip of Texas, Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Sanctuary sprawls across a landscape sculpted by salt spray and…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYLaguna del Tigre National Park
Petén, Guatemala
+399 birds+29 mammals
Where the Petén lowlands dissolve into wetland and forest, Laguna del Tigre National Park protects one of Guatemala's most ecologically vital landscapes. This sprawling reserve encompasses…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKLower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Starbase, United States
+311 birds+11 mammals
Where the Rio Grande delta spreads across the coastal plain of South Texas, a sanctuary of subtropical wetlands and riparian corridors creates a landscape that pulses…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYManuel Antonio National Park
Quepos, Costa Rica
+426 birds+22 mammals
Where tropical rainforest descends steeply to a rocky Pacific coastline, Manuel Antonio National Park distills Central American biodiversity into one of Costa Rica's most compressed and…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKMarino Ballena National Park
Bahía Ballena, Costa Rica
+336 birds+8 mammals
Where mangrove forests meet coral-fringed shorelines along Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast, Marino Ballena National Park encompasses a marine and terrestrial mosaic that ranks among Central…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKMarino Golfo de Chiriquí National Park
Boca Chica, Panama
+82 birds+2 mammals
Where mangrove forests meet tropical Pacific waters, Marino Golfo de Chiriquí National Park spans 463 square kilometers of one of Central America's most biodiverse coastal systems.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKMarino Las Baulas National Park
Santa Cruz, Costa Rica
+246 birds+9 mammals
Where the Pacific meets a mosaic of dry forest and mangrove estuary, this coastal national park protects one of Central America's most dynamic wildlife theatres. The…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKMerritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
Brevard County, United States
+341 birds+19 mammals
Brackish marshes and palmetto scrub define this wildlife sanctuary spanning the coastal lowlands of central Florida, where the Atlantic tide meets freshwater systems in a dynamic…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYMontes Azules
Candelaria, Mexico
+395 birds+47 mammals
Where jungle-clad limestone plateaus plunge into canyon systems carved by the Usumacinta River, Mexico's most pristine rainforest reserve unfolds across the Lacandón region of Chiapas. Montes…
VIEW BIOSPHERE RESERVEMorrocoy National Park
Municipio Silva
+290 birds
Where the Caribbean coast of northwestern Venezuela meets protected coastal waters, a mosaic of mangrove forests, sandy beaches, and coral reef systems defines Morrocoy National Park.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Bahía Portete Kaurrele National Park
Colombia
+80 birds
Where the Caribbean coast of La Guajira rises to meet arid scrubland and seasonal wetlands, Natural Bahía Portete Kaurrele National Park spans 251 square kilometres of…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Sumapaz National Park
Cubarral, Colombia
+368 birds+1 mammals
Where the Andes descend toward the Amazon basin, the high páramo grasslands of Sumapaz National Park sprawl across more than five thousand square kilometers of Meta…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Uramba Bahía Málaga National Park
Buenaventura, Colombia
+308 birds+15 mammals
Where the Pacific coastal rainforest descends to mangrove estuaries and rocky headlands, Uramba Bahía Málaga National Park unfolds across nearly 1,000 square kilometres of Colombia's Valle…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Utría National Park
Alto Baudó (Pie de Pató), Colombia
+372 birds+11 mammals
Where the Chocó's coastal mountains plunge toward the Pacific, Utría National Park preserves one of Colombia's most biodiverse and least-visited wilderness expanses. Sprawling across 1,287 square…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKOkefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Charlton County, United States
+206 birds+14 mammals
Vast wetlands of cypress and blackwater creeks define this wildlife sanctuary straddling the Georgia–Florida border, where the landscape shifts between open marsh, dense swamp forest, and…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYOlympic National Park
Jefferson County, United States
+263 birds+35 mammals
Where temperate rainforest meets alpine wilderness, Olympic National Park sprawls across nearly 11,000 square kilometers of the Pacific Northwest's most pristine landscape. The park's three distinct…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKPalo Verde National Park
Bagaces, Costa Rica
+318 birds+24 mammals
Dry forest spreads across Palo Verde's low-lying terrain in northwestern Guanacaste, where seasonal rivers and lagoons etch through deciduous woodland that sheds its canopy each winter.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKParque Nacional Arrecife Alacranes
Chicxulub, Mexico
+93 birds
Coral formations rise from turquoise shallows off the Yucatán Peninsula, their limestone skeletons built over millennia into a living archipelago where the Caribbean meets the Gulf…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKParque Nacional de Galápagos
Santo Tomás, Ecuador
+139 birds+23 mammals
Volcanic peaks and weathered lava fields dominate this remote archipelago in the Pacific, where the interplay of cold ocean currents and tropical latitude creates an ecological…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGOParque Nacional Isla Isabel
Santiago Ixcuintla, Mexico
+107 birds+2 mammals
A volcanic island sanctuary rises from the Pacific waters off Nayarit's coast, where three dormant cones define a landscape of sharp ridges, coastal cliffs, and sheltered…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKPea Island National Wildlife Refuge
Dare County, United States
+356 birds+15 mammals
Where the Outer Banks taper toward the Atlantic, a sliver of barrier island creates a microcosm of coastal ecology. Pea Island National Wildlife Sanctuary spans over…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYPelican Island National Wildlife Refuge
Windsor, United States
+265 birds+4 mammals
Where Florida's Indian River widens into a brackish estuary, a small island sanctuary commands the attention of waterbirds across the Atlantic Flyway. Pelican Island National Wildlife…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYPiedras Blancas National Park
Golfito, Costa Rica
+386 birds+24 mammals
Where the Golfo Dulce meets the southwestern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Piedras Blancas National Park protects a dramatic transition zone where lowland rainforest descends toward…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKPoint Pelee National Park
Leamington, Canada
+296 birds+14 mammals
Where Lake Erie's shallow waters meet the Ontario shoreline, a slender sandy peninsula juts into the Great Lakes like a natural funnel for migrating wildlife. This…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKPortobelo National Park
Portobelo, Panama
+366 birds+9 mammals
Where the Caribbean's turquoise waters meet the Darién's verdant shore, Portobelo National Park sprawls across 570 square kilometers of coastal forest, mangrove wetland, and coral-fringed islands…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKRedwood National Park
Humboldt County, United States
+343 birds+43 mammals
Where the Pacific fog rolls deep into northern California's coastal valleys, some of the tallest trees on Earth rise from a landscape shaped by tectonic forces…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKSalton Sea National Wildlife Refuge
Imperial County, United States
+289 birds+4 mammals
Across the floor of California's inland desert, where summer temperatures soar and rainfall is measured in tenths of inches, lies an improbable oasis of shallow water…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYSanta Ana National Wildlife Refuge
Hidalgo County, United States
+349 birds+12 mammals
Where the Rio Grande delta meets the semi-arid scrublands of South Texas, Santa Ana National Wildlife Sanctuary preserves a rare mosaic of wetland and thornforest habitat…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYSanta Rosa National Park
Santa Elena, Costa Rica
+359 birds+30 mammals
Where Pacific-facing slopes descend from volcanic uplands toward the Guanacaste lowlands, Santa Rosa National Park unfolds across a mosaic of tropical dry forest, gallery woodland, and…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKSarigua National Park
Parita, Panama
+56 birds+1 mammals
Across the Parita lowlands of Herrera Province, mangrove forests and tidal mudflats define a landscape shaped entirely by water—where brackish estuaries meet the Pacific and the…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKShenandoah National Park
Page County, United States
+243 birds+31 mammals
Ridges of ancient quartzite rise above the Shenandoah Valley floor, their slopes dressed in a mosaic of oak and hickory forest that yields to cove hardwoods…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKSian Ka’an
Chunyaxché, Mexico
+350 birds+16 mammals
Where the Yucatán Peninsula dissolves into wetland and mangrove, a vast mosaic of forest, lagoon, and coastal margin creates one of Mexico's most biodiverse strongholds. Across…
VIEW BIOSPHERE RESERVESoberanía National Park
Cristóbal, Panama
+495 birds+34 mammals
Rainforest and riverine woodland blanket the rolling terrain of this 714-square-kilometre national park in Colón Province, where the Caribbean watershed feeds a maze of streams and…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKSt. Marks National Wildlife Refuge
Saint Marks, United States
+324 birds+16 mammals
Where the Apalachee Bay begins to define the Florida coastline, salt marshes and freshwater impoundments merge into one of the southeastern United States' most productive wildlife…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYTikal National Park
Tikal, Guatemala
+399 birds+16 mammals
Dense rainforest canopy rises above the limestone plateau of Petén, where archaeological wonder and ecological richness merge seamlessly across one of Central America's most biodiverse landscapes.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKTortuguero National Park
Roxana, Costa Rica
+420 birds+23 mammals
Canals and lagoons thread through a labyrinth of lowland rainforest where the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica meets the wetland frontier. This is terrain shaped by…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKWheeler National Wildlife Refuge
Triana, United States
+268 birds+10 mammals
Shallow impoundments and meandering channels spread across northern Alabama's humid subtropical landscape, where Wheeler National Wildlife Sanctuary anchors a critical junction of wetland and woodland habitat.…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYYasuní National Park
Aguarico, Ecuador
+601 birds+43 mammals
Where the western Amazon basin converges with Ecuador's Orellana Province, lowland rainforest reaches toward the horizon in an unbroken canopy of staggering botanical density. Yasuní National…
VIEW NATIONAL PARK