Sabine's gull insect larvae taken include terrestrial and aquatic beetles, springtails, craneflies, mosquitos, midges, and flower flies (Syrphidae). Sabine's gull The Sabine's gull ("Xema sabini"), also known as the fork-tailed gull or xeme, is a small gull. Its generic placement is disputed; some authors treat it as the sole species in the genus Xema as Xema sabini, while others retain it in the genus "Larus" as Larus sabini. The Sabine's gull breeds in colonies on coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a ground nest lined with grass. It is very pelagic outside the breeding season. It takes
Sabine's gull species. The two species are thought to have separated around 2 million years ago, longer ago than most groups of gull species. Geographical variation is slight; birds from Alaska are slightly darker and perhaps bigger. Most authorities recognise no races, but a few recognise four based on size and mantle (back) colour. The Handbook of the Birds of the World recognises four subspecies. The nominate subspecies, "X. s. sabini", breeds from the Canadian Arctic to Greenland. "X. s. palaearctica" (Stegman, 1934) breeds from Spitsbergen to the Taymyr Peninsula in Russia, and "X. s. tschuktschorum" (Portenko, 1939) breeds on the Chukotskiy