The Kittiwake is a bird of the rocky cliffs and stacks of the north and west coasts, being abundant in suitable districts of Scotland and Ireland and also plentiful though very local along the coasts of Wales and of Western England. On the east coast they do not breed south of the Humber, probably because of the lack of suitable sites. They are among the smallest members of the family, being scarcely larger than the Black Headed Gulls and are also the most truly oceanic, for except in the summer months they frequent the open seas well away from land.

The plumage is white with a soft grey mantle and has plain black wing tips which form a triangle and unspotted by white "mirrors". The legs are nearly black and the bill is greenish-yellow.

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