Herring Gulls – The Most Common Sea Gull
A Sea Bird Found in North America, Europe, and Asia
May 28, 2009
For residents of most of the northern hemisphere, the familiar gull seen hanging about fishing boats, fish processing plants, and garbage dumps, is the Herring Gull, Larus argentatus. White, with a light silvery grey back, black wing tips, pinkish legs, yellow eyes, and a yellow beak ornamented with an orange dot near the tip, the bird’s Latin name literally means “a sea bird decorated with silver.”
Herring Gull Habits
In a natural environment, Herring Gulls eat aquatic creatures that they catch near the surface of the water, as well as dead floating remains and the feces of marine mammals. Outside the breeding season, they range far out at sea.
On land, Herring Gulls eat carrion and dead sea animals washed up on beaches, and raid the nests of other birds for eggs and young. When they encounter them, they’ll also eat mollusks and crustaceans, small mammals, amphibians, insects, worms, and even berries.
Willing to eat virtually anything, the Herring Gull is a successful opportunist around human communities. These birds feast on offal from fishing boats, slaughter houses, and seafood processing plants, gathering in large flocks wherever food is plentiful, even inland. They follow farmers' ploughs foraging for worms and other small creatures that the ploughs turn up. The ease with which Herring Gulls have adjusted to life with humans has allowed them to multiply to a global population of about three million birds. In some places, they are considered pests.
Herring Gull Breeding and Nesting
Herring Gulls pair with a single mate, but nest in large colonies. They nest on the ground on flat offshore islands, but often choose cliff faces or even trees on the mainland where the ground is less safe. Roof tops, window ledges, and chimney stacks are sometimes chosen as well.
The nest is made of plant material such as seaweed, grasses, and moss, and lined with soft grass and feathers. The female usually lays three eggs, which hatch in three to four weeks. Young leave the nest within a day or two, especially when the colony is located on level ground, but the parents feed them until they are at least a month old.
Interesting Facts About the Herring Gull
Herring Gulls:
- often steal the eggs and young of their own species to eat or to feed to their young.
- sometimes kidnap live young then feed and raise the strangers as if they were their own.
- have crops to store food until it is either digested or regurgitated to feed young. The young peck at the orange spot on the adult bill to stimulate regurgitation.
- are highly vulnerable to predation by other adults as chicks. They leave the nest early and wander out of their parent’s territory in the colony.
- can drink either fresh or salt water.
- drop snails and other mollusks onto rocks to break shells open.
- steal food from other birds.
- like to gather in open flat spaces such as sand bars and parking lots. When they congregate on airport runways, they frequently collide with aircraft, creating a safety hazard.
- generally don’t migrate, but young birds often do, as do populations that live in the far north.
- compete with other birds for nesting sites, causing population losses in other species.
Sources:
Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Perrins, Christopher ed. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2003
Sea & Coastal Birds of North America. Leslie, Scott. Toronto: Key Porter, 2008.
“Herring Gull.” Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds
Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Floyd, Ted. New York: HarperCollins; 2008.
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