European Herring Gull

Voice

Loud and nasal. The long call, kyow-kyow-kyow, is delivered with the head thrown back and is heard all year, though most intensely at colonies from March to July. Alarm is a short barking ga-ga-ga, and juveniles give a plaintive mewing begging note.

Identification

Adult: pale grey mantle, black primaries with white mirrors, pink legs, yellow bill with a red gonys spot, and a pale yellow eye set in an orange-yellow ring. Immatures take four calendar years, from mottled brown with a dark tail band to steadily greyer mantles. Males are bigger, flatter-headed and thicker-billed than females.

Confusion species

Yellow-legged Gull: darker grey mantle, bright yellow legs, more black in the wingtip, and a fierce expression on a smallish head. Caspian Gull: long-bodied with a pear-shaped head, long slim dark bill, long pale legs and a small dark eye; often droops its wings. Lesser Black-backed is slate-grey with yellow legs.

Habitat

Coasts, harbours, piers and high-tide roosts, but equally warehouse roofs and housing estates, landfills and freshly ploughed fields inland. Breeds in dunes, on shell banks and on flat roofs, often in loose colonies alongside other gulls.

Range and movements

A coastal bird of north-west Europe. In the Netherlands a common breeder in dunes, on the Wadden islands and in port cities, present all year. In Spain it is scarce: essentially a winter visitor to the Cantabrian coast and Galicia, where Yellow-legged Gull is the default large gull.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Winter is gull season. In December or January pick a fishing harbour or a high-tide roost and work through the flock in morning light: mantle shade first, then leg colour, then head shape and expression. Take your time, since many birds stand around for hours.

Conservation status

Despite the numbers, breeding populations in the Netherlands and north-west Europe have declined for decades. Reduced fishery discards and the closure of landfills removed easy food, and ground colonies suffer heavily from fox predation. Roof-nesting in towns, by contrast, keeps increasing.