Herring Gull

A large, gray backed gull with a thick bill, it goes through several plumage changes in the first four years of life, starting out as an all brown bird in the first year (a common age for this species to wander to the Caribbean). Length: males 60-66 cm., females 56-62 cm.; weight: males 1,050-1,250 g., females 800-980 g. Audio (M. Oberle). It breeds in northern North America. Herring Gulls banded in Massachusetts and Michigan have been recovered in Puerto Rico. It is an uncommon but regular visitor to San Juan Harbor and other locations such as the breakwater at Arecibo harbor (3 July 1998, 24 December 1999, 13 November 2001) and Mayagüez (sightings between December 1999 and February 2000).

TAXONOMY: CHARADRIIFORMES; LARIDAE; Larinae. Some studies now suggest that the races in the New World may represent a different species, Larus smithsonianus.

Juvenile - Photo: M. Donahue

Subadult, third winter plumage - Photo: M. Donahue

Adult, breeding plumage - Photo: G. Beaton

References

Bent, A.C. 1921. Life histories of North American gulls and terns. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 113. (Reprinted by Dover Press, 1963).

Chylarecki, P. 1993. New Herring Gull taxonomy. Br. Birds 86:316-319.

Crochet, P. A., J. D. Lebreton, and F. Bonhomme. 2002. Systematics of large white-headed gulls: patterns of mitochondrial DNA variation in western European taxa. Auk 119(3):603-620.

del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. 1996. Handbook of Birds of the World, Vol. 3. Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birderÆs handbook: a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon and Schuster/ Fireside, NY.

Grant, P.J. 1997. Gulls: a guide to identification, 2^nd Ed. Academic Press, NY.

Harrison, P. 1983. Seabirds: an identification guide. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Harrison, P. 1987. A field guide to seabirds of the world. Stephen Greene Press, Lexington, MA.

Pierotti, R. and T. Good. 1995. Herring Gull (Larus argentatus). No. 124 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, PA, and Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington, D.C.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

http://www.martinreid.com/gullinx.htm

Herring Gull, Spanish text

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