Herring Gull (Larus argentatus): Facts, Diet and Behavior

What does a herring gull look like?

The adult herring gull has a white head, neck, underparts and tail, a pale silver-gray back and upper wings, and black wingtips marked with small white spots called mirrors. The thick yellow bill carries a bright red spot near the tip of the lower mandible. The eye is pale yellow, ringed with yellow or orange skin, and the legs are usually pink, although some birds around the Baltic have yellow legs.

In winter the adult’s white head becomes streaked with gray-brown, and the bill may look duller. Males and females look the same, though males are larger, with heavier bills and flatter foreheads.

Young herring gulls look very different. A juvenile is mottled brown all over, with a dark bill and dark eyes. Over about four years it molts through a series of patchy brown-and-gray plumages, gradually gaining a gray back, a white body, a pale eye and a yellow bill. Bird watchers call this a “four-year gull”, and the in-between stages are one reason gulls are hard to identify.

In Britain and western Europe the herring gull can be confused with the lesser black-backed gull, which has a dark slate-gray back and yellow legs, and with the much larger great black-backed gull, which has a black back. Around the Mediterranean the similar yellow-legged gull replaces it.

How big is a herring gull?

The herring gull is one of the larger gulls, but it is not the biggest. Males are clearly larger than females.

For comparison, the great black-backed gull, the largest gull in the world, is 64–79 cm (25–31 in) long and can weigh more than 2 kg (4.4 lb), while the black-headed gull common on European lakes and parks is only about 34–39 cm (13–15 in) long.

Habitat and range

Herring gulls breed along the coasts of northwest Europe: Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Britain, Ireland, northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Scandinavia, the Baltic Sea and northwest Russia. Birds in western Europe are largely resident, while northern and eastern birds move south and west in winter, some reaching Spain and Portugal.

Natural nest sites include cliff ledges, rocky islands, sand dunes and shingle beaches. Outside the breeding season herring gulls gather on beaches, estuaries, harbors, plowed fields, playing fields, reservoirs and landfill sites, and many fly inland each day to feed and return to the coast or a large lake to roost.

Since the mid-20th century, herring gulls have also nested on rooftops in coastal and some inland towns. Flat roofs and chimneys copy the safety of a cliff ledge, with few predators and plenty of food nearby. Urban colonies have grown even as many natural colonies shrank.

The American herring gull split

Until recently, most books treated herring gulls on both sides of the Atlantic, and in parts of Asia, as a single species. Studies of DNA, plumage and calls have led many authorities to split them. BirdLife International, the IUCN Red List and most European committees now treat the American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus) as its own species, and the Vega gull of northeast Siberia is often split too. Some North American checklists kept them together for many years, so you will still see both names.

The American herring gull breeds in Alaska, Canada and the northeast United States and winters south to Central America and the Caribbean. It looks very similar to the European bird as an adult, but its young are darker and more uniformly brown, with a darker tail. This page describes the European herring gull.

Diet and feeding

The herring gull is an opportunistic omnivore, and that is the key to its success. Despite its name, it has no special preference for herring. Studies of stomach contents have found that crabs, shellfish, starfish and other invertebrates often matter more than fish, although chicks are fed a lot of fish.

On the shore it takes crabs, mussels, cockles, worms and stranded fish, and it is famous for dropping shellfish onto rocks or roads from a height to break them open. At sea it follows fishing boats for discards and picks food from the surface; it can plunge-dive, but only to about 1–2 m (3–7 ft) because it floats so easily. Inland it walks over plowed fields after earthworms, sometimes “paddling” with its feet to bring worms to the surface.

It also eats carrion, the eggs and chicks of other birds, seeds, fruit and a large amount of human food waste from landfills, fishing ports and streets. On some coasts refuse has made up roughly half of the diet. Gulls in seaside towns have learned to take food directly from people; the reasons are explained in Why do seagulls steal food?

Herring gulls can drink seawater thanks to salt glands above the eyes, but they prefer fresh water when they can find it, often bathing and drinking in rain pools and reservoirs. See Can seagulls drink salt water?

Behavior and communication

Herring gulls are sociable birds that feed, roost and nest in groups, but they are also quarrelsome. Flocks have a loose pecking order based on size and boldness, and adult males usually win disputes over food.

They are very vocal. The best-known call is the loud “long call”, a series of laughing yelps given with the head first bowed and then thrown back, used to advertise a territory. Gulls also give short “kek-kek” alarm calls, a low mewing call during courtship and a deep, choking display at the nest. To many people in Britain and northern Europe, this laughing call is the sound of the seaside.

Herring gulls are clever and flexible feeders. They learn where and when food appears, follow tractors and fishing boats, and quickly exploit new food sources such as bins and outdoor cafes. They also aggressively defend their nests: in spring and summer, parents may swoop at people, dogs or other birds that come too close to eggs or chicks, usually with loud calls and close passes rather than contact.

Reproduction and chicks

Herring gulls usually breed for the first time at about four or five years old. Pairs are mostly monogamous and often stay together and return to the same nest site year after year, as long as they breed successfully.

Courtship involves head-tossing and the female begging for food, which the male regurgitates for her. Both birds build a nest of grass, seaweed and other plant material on the ground, a ledge or a roof. The female usually lays three eggs, sometimes two or four, which are olive-brown with dark blotches. Both parents incubate them for about 28–30 days.

Chicks hatch covered in gray, speckled down with their eyes open and can walk within hours, though they stay near the nest. When hungry, a chick pecks at the red spot on its parent’s bill, and the parent regurgitates food on the ground for it. In the 1940s and 1950s the Dutch biologist Niko Tinbergen studied this behavior with cardboard model heads and showed that chicks pecked most at a long, thin bill with a contrasting red spot. The work became a classic of animal behavior science, and Tinbergen later shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The young fly at about 35–40 days (5–6 weeks) old. Parents keep feeding them for several more weeks, and sometimes for months if the young bird keeps begging.

Lifespan, predators and threats

Like most large gulls, the herring gull is long-lived once it survives its first year. Adults often live around 12 years, and ringing studies have recorded wild birds more than 30 years old.

Eggs and chicks are taken by great black-backed gulls, crows, foxes, rats, mink and other gulls. Adults have few predators, although large falcons, eagle-owls and gray seals occasionally kill them.

The main threats are human-made. Fewer fishing discards, the closure or covering of open landfill sites, outbreaks of avian botulism, and in recent years highly pathogenic avian influenza have all hit colonies. Predators such as foxes and mink reaching islands can wipe out breeding attempts, and some birds die after swallowing fishing hooks or becoming tangled in litter.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List classifies the European herring gull as Least Concern because its range and total population are very large, but it lists the population trend as decreasing.

In the UK the species has been red-listed as a bird of conservation concern since 2009, after large falls in breeding numbers at natural coastal colonies since the 1970s. At the same time, the number of herring gulls nesting on rooftops has increased, so many people see more gulls in towns even though the national population has fallen. Like all wild birds in the UK and the EU, herring gulls and their active nests are protected by law.

Myths and facts

Myth: Herring gulls live only by the sea. Fact: many feed and even nest well inland, around lakes, reservoirs, rivers, farmland, landfill sites and cities.

Myth: Herring gulls mainly eat herring. Fact: the name is old and misleading. Crabs, shellfish, starfish, worms, waste and other foods often matter more than fish. For more on what people mean by seagulls, see Is a seagull a real species?

Myth: Gulls are thriving everywhere. Fact: urban colonies have grown, but the herring gull’s overall population in Britain and other parts of Europe has fallen, which is why it is red-listed in the UK.

Relationship with people

Herring gulls have lived alongside people for centuries, following fishing fleets and feeding at harbors. Today they divide opinion. Many residents of seaside towns dislike their noise, droppings and food snatching, while others value them as intelligent, characterful birds and a familiar part of coastal life.

Advice from bird charities is simple: do not feed gulls, use closed bins, and eat with awareness in places where gulls gather. Feeding them teaches gulls to approach people. Nesting gulls that swoop are protecting chicks and usually calm down once the young have flown.

Other North Atlantic seabirds share the same cliffs and islands, among them the Atlantic puffin.