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Mew Gull

Mew Gull

Larus canus

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The Common Gull, or Mew Gull, is a compact, clean-cut gull of the cool temperate Palearctic, breeding from Iceland across northern Eurasia to Kamchatka. Most northern birds migrate south to western Europe, the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas and East Asian coasts, though some stay year-round. Adults have a soft grey back, black wingtips with white “mirrors”, a slim yellow-green bill and yellowish legs. The North American Short-billed Gull is now treated as a separate species.

Did you know?

  • “Mew” is an old name for gulls, related to German Möwe.
  • Unusually for a gull, it may nest in small trees near water.

Voice

Sound

About the species

Identification

A medium-sized gull with a pale grey back, white head and underparts and black wingtips with white spots. The legs are yellow-green and the bill yellow without a red spot; the eye is dark. In winter the head is grey-streaked and the bill may show a faint dark band; young birds are brown-mottled. It is smaller and daintier than Herring Gull, with yellow-green legs and a slimmer yellow bill.

Family

Laridae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

white, grey, black, yellow

About the habitat

Coasts, estuaries, lakes, rivers, marshes and wet meadows, as well as farmland and urban waterfronts; outside the breeding season shores, harbours, inland waters and parks.

Diet

Opportunistic: earthworms, insects, small crustaceans and molluscs, fish, carrion, eggs, berries and human scraps; it often feeds in fields, on shores and around harbours.

Behaviour

Often feeds in flocks and follows ploughs on farmland; also scavenges in towns. It nests on the ground, rocks, rooftops or even in small trees, usually in loose colonies. Both parents incubate the usual three eggs for 24–26 days and tend the chicks, which fledge at about 35 days. It gives a high, mewing call and flies buoyantly.

Sources

Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Larus canus Common Gull in Norway.jpg

Sound: Jochem verweij, XC898207, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/898207

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_gull

See also