European herring gull

Herring gulls live in Europe.

They live by the sea, on cliffs and beaches. Many also live in towns and nest on roofs!

European herring gulls live in northern and western Europe, from Iceland and the British Isles to Scandinavia and western Russia, and they also breed in Greenland. Some fly south and inland for the winter.

They used to nest mainly on cliff ledges by the sea. Since the 1920s many have moved into towns and cities, where they nest on rooftops. Today you can find them at the coast, around rubbish tips, fields, reservoirs and lakes, and on city streets.

The IUCN's 2021 global assessment, which covers the European herring gull, lists it as resident from Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom across the Low Countries, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic states to Poland, Belarus and European Russia, breeding in Greenland and Svalbard, and present outside the breeding season across central and southern Europe.

The RSPB dates the move from cliff ledges to urban rooftops to the 1920s. The BTO notes that small numbers now breed far inland, and that urban colonies are increasing while rural and coastal ones decline.

Herring gulls eat lots of different foods.

They eat crabs, fish, worms and bugs. They also eat food that people drop.

Herring gulls are opportunists: they eat whatever good food they can find. Most of their food comes from the sea, such as fish and crabs, and green shore crabs are a favorite. They also eat insects, worms and dead animals, and they gather in big groups at rubbish dumps to eat food people throw away.

They have clever tricks too. A gull may stamp its feet on the grass, imitating rain, so that worms come up to the surface.

The BTO describes the diet as mainly marine vertebrates and invertebrates, with the green shore crab a particular favorite, but the species is an opportunist that takes a wide variety of food, including at refuse dumps. The RSPB lists fish, insects, carrion and discarded rubbish.

Foraging behavior is flexible: birds patter their feet on grass to imitate rain and draw worms to the surface. The BTO says recent declines at rural and coastal colonies may be associated with fewer feeding opportunities as landfill sites close and fisheries discards decrease.

Herring gulls are very noisy. Their loud calls are a sound of the seaside.

Gull parents protect their chicks. If you see a nest, give it lots of space.

The loud calls of herring gulls are one of the best-known sounds of the seaside. Gulls are resourceful and brilliant at finding food, and today they live in towns, cities and the countryside as well as by the sea.

Herring gulls are very protective parents. When they have eggs or chicks, they defend them fiercely. The RSPB says this careful parenting is often mistaken for gulls being unfriendly all year round. The calm thing to do is to give nesting gulls plenty of space.

The BTO calls the herring gull a quintessential sound of the seaside, and the RSPB describes it as resourceful and brilliant at finding food, including in towns and cities.

Birds are highly defensive of nests and young. The RSPB says this protective parenting has been mistaken by the media for year-round hostility, and it dates the strained relationship between people and gulls to the birds' move onto urban rooftops in the 1920s. The RSPB publishes guidance for people who have gulls nesting on their roofs.

You can often see herring gulls, but there are fewer than there used to be.

Scientists are working out why, so they can help.

Herring gulls might seem to be everywhere, but in the UK they are on the Red List because their numbers have fallen so much. Along the coast, the number of nesting herring gulls fell by more than half between 1969 and about 2000.

Across Europe there are still more than a million adults, so the species is listed as Least Concern worldwide. But its numbers are going down, and scientists are studying why: disease, fewer rubbish dumps and fewer scraps from fishing boats may all play a part.

The IUCN's 2021 global assessment lists Larus argentatus as Least Concern, with 1,060,000 to 1,220,000 mature individuals and a decreasing trend. In the UK it is Red-listed: the BTO reports that the coastal breeding population fell by more than 50 percent between the 1969–70 census and Seabird 2000 (1998–2002), with further declines since.

The BTO says the main drivers are unclear. Botulism is believed to have been one important factor in the earlier decline, and recent falls may be associated with landfill closures and fewer fisheries discards. Rooftop colonies are increasing, but not enough to make up for losses elsewhere.