The Urban Pantheist

Urban species #029: Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis

Researching urban species, one repeatedly encounters certain terms: adjectives such as opportunistic and omnivorous, and designations like "scavenger." All these words imply that the animal in question can eat almost anything, including the trash that humans leave behind. Gulls of all types fit this pretty well.

Ring-billed gulls are small gulls (about crow-sized) found throughout North America. They can be found at the seashore, but actually prefer fresh water. They congregate in large groups on sandbars, at dumps, and in parking lots, often seen in the company of their larger cousin the herring gull. Given an ocean existence, gulls follow fishing boats, feed on dead animals on the water's surface or on the beach, eat the eggs and young of turtles and other seabirds, and drop mollusks from a height onto rocks or pavement to get at the meat. In the city they scavenge from dumpsters, make use of carrion, and take advantage of human families feeding the ducks. Rarely do people deliberately feed gulls--they possess an air of menace that puts people off.

They can be told from other North American urban gulls by their small size and the black ring around their bill.

( lots of pictures )