Specie's Page                                               Water Fowl - Herring Gulls

Herring Gull:

UK Status: Resident, re-enforced during the winter by migrants.

Habitat: This large, noisy gull is found around our coast lines, and frequently inland around land fills, where they feed. It's common to see them in numbers in fishing ports, where they hang around waiting for discarded bits of fish from the trawlers. They feed on fish, small mammals, baby chicks, eggs, seed and just about any thing else. This really bold, cheeky bird will even nick your fish and chips out of your hands.

Breeding: This bird nests on cliff tops, small islands and flat roofed buildings

Comment: Fairly common around the British mainland, and often inland as well, However the species is in decline, and this is of great concern.

This bird is very much like the Yellow-legged, and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in appearance. It is larger than both Lesser Black-backed, and Herring Gull. Also the wing coverts a paler than in the Lesser Black-backed, and Yellow-legged Gulls.

Yellow-legged Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull