European Herring Gull

How to recognise it

• White head and underparts, pale grey back and wings, black wingtips with small white spots
• Yellow bill with a red spot, yellow ring around the pale eye, usually pink legs
• Juveniles are brown-speckled with dark bill and dark eyes, adult plumage after four years
• Sexes look alike, adult males often larger, brown streaks on head and neck outside breeding season

Call and song

The main call is a high to shrill, falling “kiu” or “kiau”. Its high, laughing call is especially well known. Alarm calls include a deep, cackling “ha-ha-ha” and a dog-like “wauff” warning chicks. A drawn-out, cat-like mewing is heard mainly in colonies. In winter it is mostly silent except when fighting over food.

Where and when

A partial migrant, it breeds commonly around the coasts and by lakes and rivers in Sweden, often wintering in central and southern Sweden. It is reported all year and from all 21 counties. Migrating Scandinavian birds move mainly between September and November. The population, estimated at 61 000 pairs, has fallen by 56 to 72 percent in 30 years and is red-listed as Vulnerable (VU).

Food and behaviour

It eats fish and fish waste, crayfish, mussels, worms, insects, birds' eggs and chicks, and in towns mainly waste and discarded food. It often drops shelled prey from a height to crack the shell. It breeds from late April to early May in a rock crevice or on a cliff ledge and almost always lays three eggs. Chicks beg by pecking the red spot on the parent's lower bill.