Specie's Page                                               Water Fowl - Yellow-legged Gull

Yellow-legged Gull:

UK Status: Resident and winter visitor.

Habitat: This bird is mainly a visitor that appears in the latter part of the year. There is however a small breeding population in the UK, mainly in England. These birds tend to visit, and sometimes frequent inland pools and lakes, marshy areas, rivers, estuaries and the coast.

Breeding: This bird nests on the ground, or on cliff ledges, nests are a mound of decaying vegetation. There are usually three eggs in a clutch, eggs are fairly pointed, pale buff, and marked with pale grey and brown blotches. Incubation takes nealy a month, and chicks fledge in about five to six weeks.

Comment: One of our larger gulls in the UK, the Yellow-legged Gull have only recently achieved the status of being a distinct species in it's own right. Formerly it has been classed as a sub species of both the Herring, and Caspian Gulls.

This bird is very much like the Herring, and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in appearance. It is slightly larger than the Lesser Black-backed, and slightly smaller than the Herring Gull. Also the wing coverts are paler than in the Lesser Black-backed, but slightly darker than the Herring Gull.

See picture below:

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull