Animal · Norway, United Kingdom, Ireland
Herring gull
Larus argentatus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The herring gull is the big grey-and-white seabird that screams over harbours and beaches in northern Europe, the bird most people simply call a seagull. It eats almost anything it can find.
Picture credit: Aiwok (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Bengt Nyman (CC BY 2.0) · Syrio (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the herring gull live?
Home: Coasts, harbours, rubbish tips and rooftops of northern Europe.
In the wild it lives in these countries: Norway, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Iceland.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown: 55-67 cm long, wingspan 125-155 cm. It weighs about 1.1 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.
The story behind it
Herring gulls used to follow fishing boats; today many of them follow people. They nest on sea cliffs but just as happily on a flat roof in a town, and they have learned that bins, harbours and chip shops are easy feeding grounds. A gull will also walk on wet grass and drum its feet up and down. The patter feels like rain to the earthworms below, which come to the surface and are snapped up. On the tip of an adult's yellow beak sits a bright red spot. A chick pecks at that spot, and the parent answers by bringing up food for it, so the spot works like a doorbell. Herring gulls can live more than thirty years, and in Britain their numbers have fallen enough for them to be watched closely.
Find it on the globe
Herring gull is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Why do gull chicks peck the red spot on the parent's beak?
The red spot is a signal. When the chick pecks it, the parent brings up food from its crop. Scientists tested this with paper models and found that chicks aim for the spot even without a real gull attached.
Why do gulls stamp their feet on the grass?
They are fishing for earthworms. The drumming makes the ground shake like heavy rain, and worms crawl up to escape what they take for a flood. The gull is waiting for them at the top.
Why do herring gulls live in towns?
A flat roof with a low wall around it looks a lot like a cliff ledge, and it is safe from foxes. Add bins, harbours and dropped chips, and a town is an easy place for a gull to raise chicks.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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