Ring-billed gull | |
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Breeding adult in New York | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Laridae |
Genus: | Larus |
Species: | L. delawarensis |
Binomial name | |
Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 | |
The ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis) is a medium-sized gull native to North America, breeding in Canada and the northern Contiguous United States, and wintering mainly in the United States and northern Mexico. The genus name is from Latin Larus which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird. The specific delawarensis refers to the Delaware River. [2]
The ring-billed gull is a medium-sized gull, having an average length of 43 to 54 centimetres (16.9 to 21.3 in) and a wingspan that ranges from 105 to 117 centimetres (41.3 to 46.1 in). Adults weigh from 300 to 700 grams (10.6 to 24.7 oz). [3]
The head, neck and underparts are white; the relatively short bill is yellow with a black ring; the back and wings are silver grey with black wingtips with white 'mirrors'; and the legs are yellow. The eyes are yellow with red rims. This gull takes three years to reach its breeding plumage starting with the largely brown juvenile plumage, its appearance changing with each fall moult. [4] [5]
The average lifespan of an individual that reaches adulthood is 10.9 years [5] The oldest ring-billed gull on record was observed in Cleveland in 2021, still alive at the age of 28 years. [6]
The breeding habitat is near lakes, rivers, or the coast across most of Canada, and the northern United States. They nest colonially on the ground, often on islands, but also increasingly on flat factory roofs. [7] This bird tends to be faithful to its nesting site, if not its mate, from year to year.
The ring-billed gull is a familiar sight in North American parking lots, where it can regularly be found congregating in large numbers. [8] [9] In some areas, it is displacing less aggressive birds such as the common tern.
They are migratory and most move south to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and northern Mexico; some remain in Canada in winter in the mildest areas, on the Pacific coast in southwest British Columbia, and on the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia. [4]
This gull is a regular wanderer to western Europe. In Ireland and Great Britain it is no longer classed as a rarity, with multiple birds regularly wintering in those countries, though has become rarer again since about 2010. The peak period of occurrence was in the 1990s with on average 77 each year in Great Britain, but this fell to just 16 per year in the 2010s, and only six per year in 2020–2022 (which, at under ten per year, would reclassify it as an official rarity if continued over a decade). [10] This contrasts markedly with Bonaparte's gull, another transatlantic visitor, which has increased in Great Britain from averages of six per year to 12 per year over the same period; the reasons for these contrasting changes are unknown. [11]
Ring-billed gulls forage in flight or pick up objects while swimming, walking or wading. They also steal food from other birds and frequently scavenge. They are omnivorous; their diet may include insects, fish, grain, eggs, earthworms and rodents. [12] These birds are opportunistic and have adapted well to taking food when discarded or even left unattended by people. It is regarded as a pest by many beach-goers because of its willingness to steal unguarded food on crowded beaches. The birds congregate at beaches, marinas, docks and parks where people will hand feed them.[ citation needed ]
The gull's natural predators are rats, foxes, dogs, cats, raccoons, coyotes, eagles, hawks (although they have been seen in pairs chasing hawks), and owls.[ citation needed ]
In the late 19th century, the ring-billed gull was hunted for its plumage. Its population has since rebounded and it is probably the most common gull in North America. The population was estimated in 2006 as 2.55 million birds. [13]
The white-faced ibis is a wading bird in the ibis family, Threskiornithidae.
The common gull is a medium-sized gull that breeds in cool temperate regions of the Palearctic from Iceland and Scotland east to Kamchatka in the Russian Far East. Most common gulls migrate further south in winter, reaching the Mediterranean Sea, the southern Caspian Sea, and the seas around China and Japan; northwest European populations are at least partly resident. The closely related short-billed gull was formerly often included in this species, which was then sometimes known collectively as "mew gull".
The laughing gull is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named for its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. The two subspecies are L. a. megalopterus — which can be seen from southeast Canada down to Central America — and L. a. atricilla, which appears from the West Indies to the Venezuelan islands. The laughing gull was long placed in the genus Larus until its present placement in Leucophaeus.
The American avocet is a large wader in the avocet and stilt family, Recurvirostridae, found in North America. It spends much of its time foraging in shallow water or on mud flats, often sweeping its bill from side to side in water as it seeks crustacean and insect prey.
The European herring gull is a large gull, up to 66 cm (26 in) long. It breeds throughout the northern and western coasts of Europe. Some European herring gulls, especially those resident in colder areas, migrate further south in winter, but many are permanent residents, such as in Ireland, Britain, Iceland, or on the North Sea shores. They have a varied diet, including fish, crustaceans, as well as some plants, and are also scavengers, consuming carrion and food left by or stolen from humans.
The great black-backed gull is the largest member of the gull family. It is a very aggressive hunter, pirate, and scavenger which breeds on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic in northern Europe and northeastern North America. Southern populations are generally sedentary, while those breeding in the far north move farther south in winter. A few also move inland to large lakes and reservoirs. The adult has a white head, neck and underparts, dark blackish-grey wings and back, pink legs and the bill yellow with a red spot.
The lesser black-backed gull is a large gull that breeds on the Atlantic coasts of Europe. It is migratory, wintering from the British Isles south to West Africa. However, it has increased dramatically in North America, especially along the east coast. Formerly just a winter visitor to North America, it has increased and occurs in large numbers some winters and birds are now recorded year-round. However, there is serious concern about decline in many parts of its range. The species is on the UK Amber List because the UK is home to 40 per cent of the European population and more than half of these are found at fewer than ten breeding sites.
The glaucous gull is a large gull, the second-largest gull in the world. The genus name is from Latin larus, which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird. The specific name hyperboreus is Latin for "northern" from the Ancient Greek Huperboreoi people from the far north "Glaucous" is from Latin glaucus and denotes the grey colour of the gull. An older English name for this species is burgomaster.
Sabine's gull is a small gull. It is usually treated as the only species placed in the genus Xema, though some authors include it with other gulls in a wide view of the genus Larus. It has also been known historically as fork-tailed gull or "xeme". It breeds in colonies on arctic coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a ground nest lined with grass. Sabine's gull is pelagic outside the breeding season. It takes a wide variety of mainly animal food, and will eat any suitable small prey.
The ivory gull is a small gull, the only species in the genus Pagophila. It breeds in the high Arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia.
The black-legged kittiwake is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Larus tridactylus. The English name is derived from its call, a shrill 'kittee-wa-aaake, kitte-wa-aaake'. In North America, this species is known as the black-legged kittiwake to differentiate it from the red-legged kittiwake, but in Europe, where it is the only member of the genus, it is often known just as kittiwake.
The California gull is a medium-sized gull, smaller on average than the herring gull, but larger on average than the ring-billed gull. Although named after California, it can be found annually across most of western North America, from the Canadian prairie provinces in the northeast and south through western Mexico.
Heermann's gull is a gull resident in the United States, Mexico and extreme southwestern British Columbia, nearly all nesting on Isla Rasa in the Gulf of California. They are usually found near shores or well out to sea, very rarely inland. The species is named after Adolphus Lewis Heermann, nineteenth-century explorer and naturalist.
The western gull is a large white-headed gull that lives on the west coast of North America and the Pacific Ocean. The western gull ranges from British Columbia, Canada, to Baja California, Mexico.
Kumlien's gull is a subspecies of the Iceland gull. It is a large gull which breeds in the Arctic regions of Canada. It is migratory, wintering from Labrador south to New England and west across the Great Lakes. The subspecies is named after the naturalist Ludwig Kumlien. It is a regular vagrant in small numbers to Britain and Ireland.
Belcher's gull, also known as the band-tailed gull, is a bird in the family Laridae found along the Pacific coast of South America. It formerly included the very similar Olrog's gull as a subspecies, but that bird occurs on the Atlantic coast of South America and is now accepted as Larus atlanticus. Belcher's gull is a medium-sized gull with a blackish mantle, white head and underparts, a black band on the otherwise white tail, and a yellow bill with a red and black tip. Non-breeding adults have a brownish-black head and a white eye-ring. The name of this bird commemorates the British explorer Sir Edward Belcher, who performed survey work on the Pacific coast of South America.
Olrog's gull is a species of gull found along the Atlantic coast of southern Brazil, Uruguay, and northern Argentina. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the very similar L. belcheri. It is a large gull with a black back and wings, white head and underparts, a black band in the otherwise white tail, and a yellow bill with a red and black tip. Nonbreeding adults have a blackish head and a white eye ring. The species is named after Swedish-Argentine biologist Claes C. Olrog. It has a rather restricted breeding range and is threatened by habitat loss, and the IUCN has rated it as being "near threatened".
The Andean gull is a species in subfamily Larinae of the family Laridae, the gulls, terns, and skimmers. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The snowy-crowned tern, also known as Trudeau's tern, is a species of bird in subfamily Sterninae of the family Laridae, the gulls, terns, and skimmers. It is native to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and possibly Paraguay, and also vagrant in Peru and the Falkland Islands.
The American herring gull or Smithsonian gull is a large gull that breeds in North America, where it is treated by the American Ornithological Society as a subspecies of herring gull.