urbpan | Entries tagged with seagulls

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urbpan. Location: The Seattle Center.

Urban species #216: Glaucous-winged gull Larus glaucesens

It's a well-known fact that coastal cities attract gulls. These large scavenging birds have no qualms about treating human industry and settlements as food sources. From Alaska down to Northern Washington, the gull most commonly seen in the city is the glaucous-winged gull. ("Glaucous" is an odd word used by botanists and ornithologists to refer to a pale, powdery, grayish greenish bluish color.) The glaucous-winged gull collects in large groups in the center of Seattle, battling crows for scraps of bread and tossed pieces of popcorn. It perches on the skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver, illuminated by neon signs at night and floating down into alleyways to raid dumpsters in the daytime. They follow fishing boats and garbage barges out to sea. As the population of Northwestern cities has been rising in the past half-century, the population of glaucous-winged gulls has more than tripled.

The glaucous-winged gull is as big as a herring gull (with which it sometimes interbreeds), with a proportionally larger bill. It has distinctively pink legs, and pale gray wings. The herring gull has some black primary feathers that contrast with its gray wings.

( with a Seattle crow )

Photos by

cottonmanifesto

Urban species # 066: Herring gull Larus argentatus

Larger and more aggressive than ring-billed gulls, herring gulls are nonetheless more wary of humans than their smaller cousins. That isn't to say that they haven't benefitted from human changes to the environment. In the twentieth century, the breeding range of herring gulls spread from Maine southward down the coast to North Carolina. This expansion was mainly due to the increased food resources provided by open garbage dumps and the practice of discarding fish processing waste into the ocean. The increase in herring gull territory came at the expense of other birds such as terns and laughing gulls, who suffered competition, and outright predation, as herring gulls will eat the eggs and nestlings of other birds.

In the city herring gulls can be seen in small numbers looming over larger crowds of ring-billed bulls, on fresh or salt water, on dumpsters or in parking lots. Often the herring gulls in these mixed flocks are youngsters, who are dirty brown through their second winter. Through the third winter their head and neck are dirty in appearance, and they have the same dark ring on their bill that ring-billed gulls are named for. In their adult plumage, the ring is gone, replaced with a red spot that is a target for their young--the chick pecks at the red spot to stimulate regurgitation. During the breeding season, adults have clear white feathers on their head and body. The tendency for gulls to hybridize sometimes provides challenges for birders. In Boston, however, it is a safe guess to say that a gray-winged gull is a ring-bill if small, and a herring gull if large.

( looming )

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 )

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The Urban Pantheist

Loving Nature While Living in the City

Entries tagged with seagulls

365 Urban Species. #216: Glaucous-winged Gull

365 Urban Species. #066: Herring Gull

365 Urban Species. Species #029: Ring-billed Gull

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