Common Gull

How to recognise it

• Like a Herring Gull but clearly smaller and slimmer, with thinner bill and rounder head
• Adults have a grey back and upperwing, black outer primaries with a large white spot
• Yellow bill, pale yellow-green legs, in winter a grey-streaked head and black bill mark
• Young birds are mottled brownish grey above, with pink legs and a black-tipped pink bill

Call and song

The call is a whining “gia”. When alarmed it gives persistent “gli-u gli-u” calls. All its calls are higher-pitched than the corresponding calls of the Herring Gull.

Where and when

The Common Gull breeds by water throughout Sweden, right up into the mountains, and is reported from all 21 counties. It is a partial migrant: most Swedish birds leave in winter, but some stay along the southern coasts of Sweden. It is reported all year round. The Swedish breeding population has been estimated at between 100 000 and 200 000 pairs.

Food and behaviour

It eats fish, fish waste, mussels, earthworms, household waste, insects, berries and seed grain, among other things. In farmland it searches ploughed fields and pastures for insects and larvae. It breeds both in larger colonies and as single pairs. Single pairs may nest on rooftops, in trees or on a large boulder in a field. Both parents incubate the average clutch of three eggs for 23 to 28 days.