Yellow-Legged Gull | Larus michahellis

Voice

Deeper and more nasal than European Herring Gull: a full laughing gaow-gaow-gaow and a short ga-ga when alarmed; heard year-round in harbour towns.

Identification

A bulky, angular gull with a mid-grey mantle, darker than European Herring Gull and Caspian Gull. Adults have bright yellow legs, a pale yellow eye with a red orbital ring and a heavy yellow bill with a strong gonys angle and a large red spot. The head is pure white from summer into winter, at most with fine streaks around the eye. The wingtip has much black, with a white mirror on p10 and often a small one on p9. First-years are contrasting: a white head with a dark eye mask, coarsely chequered coverts, plain dark tertials with a narrow pale edge, a white rump and a sharp black tail band. Birds of Morocco's Atlantic coast resemble the Atlantic form atlantis and are somewhat darker-mantled.

Confusion species

European Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) has a paler mantle, pink legs and a streaked head in winter. Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans) is slimmer and longer-necked, with a small head, a long bill without a strong gonys angle, dull pink legs and more white in the wingtip. Armenian Gull (Larus armenicus) is smaller and has a short, blunt bill with a black band, a dark eye and a darker wingtip. Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) also has yellow legs, but a much darker mantle, and is slimmer with longer wings. Audouin's Gull (Ichthyaetus audouinii) is smaller and slimmer, with a dark red bill and grey-green legs.

Habitat

Rocky coasts, cliffs and islets, beaches, lagoons, salt pans, harbours, estuaries, reservoirs and rubbish tips, increasingly also roofs in towns. Breeds in colonies on rocky islets, cliffs and buildings, locally on inland reservoirs.

Range and movements

Breeds along almost the entire coast of Morocco, from the Atlantic coast (including the island off Essaouira) to the Mediterranean and the Chafarinas Islands, along the coast and on the islands of Algeria and Tunisia (including Zembra, La Galite and Kerkennah) and locally in Libya. In Israel a small, growing population of a few dozen pairs breeds on the northern coast, on islets and in Tel Aviv; also on the offshore islets of Lebanon. In winter widespread along the entire North African coast, south along the Atlantic coast into Western Sahara, in Egypt on the Mediterranean, in the Nile Delta and at Suez, and in smaller numbers to Eilat and Aqaba; rare on the Persian Gulf. Beyond the region it breeds around the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, in Macaronesia and along the Atlantic coast to western France, and is spreading into central and north-west Europe.

• Resident
• Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
• Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

How and when to look

In any North African fishing harbour, such as Essaouira, Agadir or Sfax, adults and young birds rest at close range, so you can study all plumages side by side. In Israel the northern coast between Acre and Rosh HaNikra is the best breeding area.

Conservation status

Not globally threatened and greatly increased thanks to fishery discards and rubbish tips. Common in North Africa; in Israel small but growing and listed as Near Threatened on the national Red List. Where it is numerous, it displaces smaller colonial birds such as Audouin's Gull.

Scientific name

Larus michahellis | Naumann, 1840

Naumann described the species in 1840 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. michahellis honours the German zoologist Karl Michahelles (1807–1834). The specimen the first description was based on came from the coast of Dalmatia.