Herring Gull

The Herring Gull is one of the most familiar large gulls of the Northern Hemisphere, a bulky, adaptable bird equally at home on rocky coastlines, inland lakes, and busy urban landfills.

Adults have a pale gray back and upperwings (the "mantle"), black wingtips marked with small white spots ("mirrors"), a white head and body, pink legs, and a stout yellow bill with a distinctive red spot near the tip of the lower mandible — a target that chicks peck at to stimulate their parents to regurgitate food.

Herring Gulls take about four years to reach full adult plumage, passing through a series of increasingly pale mottled brown immature plumages that can make young birds challenging to identify.

Key field marks

• Pale gray back and upperwings with black wingtips showing small white spots
• Pink legs (distinguishing adults from yellow-legged large gulls)
• Yellow bill with a red spot near the tip of the lower mandible
• Large, bulky size among gulls
• Immatures take about four years to reach adult plumage, appearing mottled brown at first

Similar species

• Ring-billed Gull: smaller, with yellow (not pink) legs and a black ring around the bill rather than a red spot.
• Lesser Black-backed Gull: darker slate-gray mantle and yellow (not pink) legs.
• Great Black-backed Gull: much larger with a nearly black mantle.

Habitat

Herring Gulls are highly adaptable, found along rocky and sandy coastlines, large lakes and rivers, harbors, landfills, parking lots, and urban areas, often far from open water.

Range and migration

They breed colonially across a broad range of the Northern Hemisphere, including much of North America, Europe, and parts of Asia, typically on coastal cliffs, islands, or inland lake colonies. Many populations are partially migratory, moving south in winter, while others remain resident in milder coastal areas year-round.

Behavior

Herring Gulls are highly opportunistic and intelligent, readily exploiting human food sources at landfills, fishing boats, and picnic areas, and are known to drop hard-shelled prey like mollusks from height onto rocks to break them open.

Voice

Calls include a loud, laughing "kyow-kyow-kyow" and a long, wailing territorial call given with the head thrown back, among the most recognizable sounds of many coastal towns.

Feeding

Their diet is broad and opportunistic, including fish, marine and terrestrial invertebrates, eggs and chicks of other birds, carrion, and a large amount of human refuse in urban and landfill settings.

Nesting and breeding

Herring Gulls nest colonially, often on coastal cliffs, offshore islands, or flat rooftops in urban areas; both parents build the nest, incubate the typically three-egg clutch, and feed the semi-precocial chicks, which are fed by regurgitation prompted by pecking at the adult's red bill spot.