Common gull

Voice

Higher and shriller than the other large gulls: a plaintive, mewing kee-ya and a nasal kyow at colonies. The long call opens with short hiccupping notes and runs into a series of loud cries while the bird throws its head far back. Heard mainly from March to June over dune colonies and harbours, and at winter roosts.

Identification

A medium gull with a mid-grey mantle, darker than Black-headed Gull and much paler than Lesser Black-backed. The bill is slim and yellow-green without a red spot, often with a faint dark band in winter; the legs are yellow-green and the eye is dark, with a red orbital ring. The wingtip is black with two large white mirrors on the outer primaries, visible as white spots even on a perched bird. In winter the head is finely streaked grey-brown. First-years already show a grey mantle, scaly brown coverts, a crisp black tail band and a dark bill with a pale base; second-years resemble adults but keep a bill band and some brown in the wing.

Confusion species

Herring Gull is considerably larger, with a pale eye and yellow orbital ring, a heavy yellow bill with a red spot and flesh-coloured legs. Black-headed Gull is smaller, with a white wedge along the leading edge of the wing and red bill and legs. The rare Ring-billed Gull is bigger and heavier, with a pale eye, a broad black band on a thicker bill and smaller mirrors. At range the combination of dark eye, yellow-green legs and large mirrors settles it.

Habitat

Breeds in open dunes, on beach plains, saltmarsh and grazed marsh, and increasingly on flat roofs and industrial sites. Feeds by walking in pasture for earthworms and insects, on tidal flats for lugworms and shellfish, and along the tideline on whatever washes up. In winter it roosts in large flocks on open water, sandflats and harbour basins.

Range and movements

A breeder of northern and north-western Europe, centred on Scandinavia and the Baltic. The Netherlands still holds a few thousand breeding pairs, mainly in the dunes and the Delta, but takes in hundreds of thousands of northern birds in winter, spread over coastal pasture and inland. In Spain it is a winter visitor in modest numbers along the Cantabrian and Galician coasts and much scarcer towards the south and the Mediterranean.

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

Where and when to look

In December or January go at dusk to a large water body where gulls roost and scan the incoming flocks: Common Gulls arrive in tight formations and can be picked out by their small heads and dark eyes. By day it pays to work through wet pasture after rain, when they patter to bring worms to the surface; at close range the mirrors on the folded wingtip show at once. Compare constantly with the Black-headed Gulls beside them: the size difference and heavier head make the species recognisable even at long range.

Conservation status

Not globally threatened and still very numerous as a winter visitor, but clearly reduced as a Dutch breeder since the peak around 1980. Foxes emptying dune colonies, rank vegetation overgrowing breeding grounds and competition with large gulls are the main causes; roofs and fenced industrial sites take up part of the loss. Disturbance of roosts and colonies remains the most sensitive point.