All species › Waders, gulls and terns › Gulls and terns

Gulls and terns | Laridae

Meeuwen en sterns | Gaviotas y charranes | Möwen und Seeschwalben | שחפים ושחפיות | Mouettes, goélands et sternes

Three fully webbed front toes and a small, raised hind toe: these birds can rest on the water, and salt glands above the eyes let them drink sea water as well. Two builds stand side by side within the family: heavier birds with a stout, slightly hooked bill that will eat almost anything they can get hold of, and slighter birds with a thin, pointed bill held downwards while hovering, before they drop into the water. They nest almost always in ground colonies, with one to three blotched eggs; the downy chicks stay at the nest and are fed by both parents, unlike the self-feeding young of the waders. Most species moult twice a year and show a different head pattern in winter, and in the largest species it takes two to four years before the adult plumage is complete.

Compare gulls: legs, head, bill and wing tip side by side

Compare terns: bill, legs, head and tail side by side

Native species 35 species

Species that occur here by nature: breeding birds, winter visitors and passage migrants. They are arranged by genus, in the sequence of the list.

Gulls | Larinae

18 species

Heavily built birds with broad, rounded wingtips and a stout bill that hooks slightly downwards at the front: not a probe for pushing into mud but a pair of pincers that can deal with almost anything — a crab, a fish, refuse, an egg or a chick. Fairly long legs let them walk easily and they sit high on the water, so you meet them on a ploughed field as readily as at sea. Where terns drop from a height, a gull picks from the surface while swimming, or chases another bird until it gives up its catch. Many wear a dark hood in summer that shrinks to a smudge behind the eye in winter, and the largest need two to four years of brown mottled dress before the clean grey and white is complete.

Hydrocoloeus 1 species

Little Gull
Hydrocoloeus minutus
- Surface standing waters
- Sublittoral sediment
- Sedge and reedbeds without free-standing water
- Littoral sediment

Rissa 1 species

Black-Legged Kittiwake
Rissa tridactyla
- Pelagic water column
- Rock cliffs, ledges and shores
- Buildings of cities, towns and villages
VU

Xema 1 species

Sabine's Gull
Xema sabini
- Pelagic water column
- Tundra
- Surface standing waters

Pagophila 1 species

Ivory Gull
Pagophila eburnea
- Ice-associated marine habitats
- Rock cliffs, ledges and shores
- Snow or ice-dominated habitats
NT

Chroicocephalus 2 species

Ichthyaetus 3 species

Larus 9 species

Terns | Sterninae

12 species

Slender, lightly built birds with long narrow wings and, in most, a forked tail, giving a buoyant, bounding flight quite unlike the steady sailing of the gulls. The bill is thin, straight and drawn out to a needle point; the legs are short, so they stand about on a beach but hardly walk on it. The hunting method is the mark of the group: they hang hovering over the water with the bill pointed down, then close the wings and plunge. The marsh-living species do not dive at all, but pick insects from the surface in dipping flight. Nearly all wear a black cap in the breeding season that fades to a white forehead in winter, and they nest in colonies on sand, shingle or floating vegetation.

Onychoprion 2 species