Bonaparte's Gull

Chroicocephalus philadelphia

It's named for Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a French bird expert and a nephew of the emperor Napoleon, who spent eight years in America. Its scientific name, philadelphia, is for the city where the first one was collected.

Chroicocephalus joins the Greek chroa, 'color,' and kephalē, 'head,' for the dark heads most gulls in this group have in summer. Philadelphia means 'from Philadelphia.'