All species › Waders, gulls and terns › Gulls and terns › American Herring Gull
American Herring Gull | Larus smithsonianus
Amerikaanse zilvermeeuw | Gaviota argéntea americana
American Herring Gull is the large gull most often seen in the Caribbean. Most wintering birds are immatures; adults tend to stay further north. European and some other authorities treat it as a separate species, others as the subspecies smithsonianus of Herring Gull Larus argentatus.
Voice
A loud, laughing kyow-kyow-kyow, a short ga-ga-ga when alarmed and a long call given with the head thrown back.
Recording: Valerie Heemstra — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
53–66 cm, large and heavy, with a powerful bill; males are clearly larger than females. Adults have a pale grey mantle, a white head streaked brown in winter, black wingtips with white mirrors, a pale eye, a yellow bill with a red spot and pink legs. Adult plumage is reached in the fourth year. First-winter birds are fairly uniform dark grey-brown, with a brown, dark-barred rump, a largely dark tail, a dark bill and pink legs; the inner primaries form a paler window in flight. Older immatures gradually acquire a grey mantle, a paler head and a pale bill with a dark tip.
Confusion species
Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis is smaller, with a slimmer bill with a black ring and yellow legs; young birds show a grey mantle early on and a white tail with a narrow band. Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus has a dark grey mantle and yellow legs; young Lesser Black-backs have a whiter rump and tail base with a clear-cut tail band and dark inner primaries. Young Great Black-backed Gulls Larus marinus are larger, with a heavier black bill, a paler, more chequered head and underparts and a whiter rump.
Habitat
Harbours, beaches, tidal flats, salt ponds and lagoons, rubbish dumps and fishing ports. It eats fish, crabs and other invertebrates, carrion and refuse, and steals food from other birds. Rests on beaches, sandbars and piers, often among Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Winter visitor to the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico; in Cuba, where it is called gallego, it is the commonest large gull, especially along the north coast. Rare in the Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles and not recorded on every island; also recorded on Trinidad and Tobago. Outside the region it breeds from Alaska and Canada to the north-eastern United States and winters along the coasts and Great Lakes of North America, south to Mexico and Central America.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best chances are in harbours and at fish landing sites and rubbish dumps in Cuba and the Bahamas, between November and April. On a large, dark young gull, check for the brown, barred rump and the largely dark tail.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The population grew strongly during the twentieth century thanks to refuse and fishery discards, but is declining again in parts of the breeding range as landfills are covered and fisheries change.
Scientific name
Larus smithsonianus | Coues, 1862
Coues described the species in 1862 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Larus was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Larus is Latin, from Ancient Greek laros, and appears to have referred to a gull or another large seabird. smithsonianus refers to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, named after the British chemist James Smithson (1765–1829). The specimen the first description was based on came from North America (not specified).