Ring-billed Gull

Larus delawarensis

Order CHARADRIIFORMES - Family LARIDAE - Subfamily Larinae

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A familiar parking lot gull, the Ring-billed Gull breeds primarily inland in North America. It can be found along the coasts, but many of these "seagulls" never see anything except fresh water all their lives.

Cool Facts

• Young Ring-billed Gulls tested at only two days of age showed a preference for magnetic bearings that would take them in the appropriate direction for their fall migration.
• Many, if not most, Ring-billed Gulls return to breed at the colony where they hatched. Once they have bred, they are likely to return to the same breeding spot each year, often nesting within a few meters of the last year's nest site. Many individuals return to the same wintering sites each winter too.

• Although it is considered a typical large white-headed gull, the Ring-billed Gull has been known to hybridize only with smaller, black-headed species, such as Franklin's, Black-headed, and Laughing gulls.

Description

• Size: 43-54 cm (17-21 in)
• Wingspan: 105-117 cm (41-46 in)
• Weight: 300-700 g (10.59-24.71 ounces)

• Medium-sized gull.
• Yellow bill with black ring near the tip.
• Head and underparts white.
• Back light gray.
• Wingtips black with white spots.
• Legs yellow.

• Eyes yellow.
• Red ring of skin around eyes.
• Gape red.
  Breeding (Alternate) Plumage: Head and nape white. Tail completely white. Wings light gray with black tips and white spots on very tips of feathers. White spots near tips of outer two or three feathers.
  Nonbreeding (Basic) Plumage: Like breeding, but with light gray mottling on the white head and nape.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike in plumage, male slightly larger than female.

Immature

Juvenal plumage: Dirty, grayish brown head, back, and chest. Back feathers with light tips, giving a scaly appearance. Underparts streaked or barred, especially on the flanks. Tail gray with black band near tip. Wingtips black. Bill black with lighter base. Eyes dark. Legs pinkish.
First Winter (Basic I): Head and nape white with gray mottling. Pale gray feathers on back, some with dark tips. Mottled brown feathers on wings. Underparts white with some gray markings or barring. Wingtips black. Bill pinkish with outer third black, and very tip pink. Tail whitish with black band near tip. Eyes dark brown. Legs pinkish.
First Summer (Alternate I): Head and nape white with sparse light mottling. Back light gray. Wings with worn brown feathers and blackish wingtips. Bill pinkish with outer third black, and very tip pink. Legs pinkish. Eyes dark.
Second Winter (Basic II): Head and nape white with gray mottling. Back and wings light gray. Breast, sides, and flanks white. Tail white with broken dark band near tip. Wingtip feathers dark brown to black with only small white tips, if any. Bill yellowish with large black band near tip. Legs yellowish.

Similar Species

• Herring Gull larger, with pinkish legs in adult, no black ring around bill, and red spot on lower mandible. Immature Herring Gull with broader black band on tail, may have broad dark ring around bill.
• California Gull has red spot on lower mandible along with its broken black ring, a slightly longer bill, greenish legs, and a slightly darker mantle. Young California Gulls have a broad dark tail band.
• Mew Gull is smaller and daintier and has a smaller bill. Its bill is pure yellow or with a faint ring in the adult but has a black ring in second winter. The white spots on the outer wingtips are larger in Mew Gull than in Ring-billed Gull.

Sound

Call a shrill "oooww." Also series of short "a-a-a-a-a-a"s.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from eastern British Columbia and northern California eastward to Newfoundland and New Brunswick, through the northern Great Plains and around the Great Lakes.

Winter Range

Winters on coasts from British Columbia and Maine to Mexico, around the Great Lakes, and inland across the southern United States where open water and food are available.

Habitat

Nests on islands. Found around fresh water, landfills, golf courses, farm fields, shopping areas, and coastal beaches.

Food

Fish, insects, earthworms, rodents, grain, garbage.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages while walking on land, dips for food on surface of water, skims shallow water for small fish, hawks for flying insects.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a scrape in ground or vegetation, filled with twigs, sticks, grasses, leaves, lichens, and mosses. Nests in colonies.

Egg Description

Light olive with dark brown speckles.

Clutch Size

Usually 3 eggs. Range: 1-4.

Condition at Hatching

Chicks semiprecocial at hatching; may leave nest cup at one day old. Covered in cryptically colored down.

Conservation Status

Hunting for the millinery trade nearly extirpated it from parts of range in 1800s. Now common and widespread, and is expanding its breeding range.

Other Names

Goéland à bec cerclé (French)
Apipizca pinta (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Ryder, J. P. 1992. Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis). In The Birds of North America, No. 33 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.