The Herring Gull is the most common and the most familiar gull in Maine.\u00a0 They are typically associated with the shorelines of the ocean, lakes and large rivers.\u00a0 These birds have readily adapted to human-altered landscapes so small flocks may hang out in parking lots, cadging French fries or other morsels from fast-food restaurant customers.\u00a0 Hundreds and even thousands of these gulls may be seen at open landfills.<\/p>\n
In North America, Herring Gulls breed across most of Canada and in the northern tier of states from Minnesota to Maine.\u00a0 Many of those breeding Herring Gulls will migrate south for the winter, either along the Pacific Coast from southeastern Alaska to Baja Mexico or to southern states from Texas east to North Carolina.\u00a0 Some even migrate to Caribbean islands.\u00a0 Some Herring Gulls breeding along the coast from Massachusetts to North Carolina are year-round residents.<\/p>\n
Although we think of Herring Gulls as abundant members of our avifauna, this species was nearly extirpated from North America in the 19th<\/sup> century by plumage hunters and egg collectors.\u00a0 Thanks to protection afforded by laws, Herring Gull populations have rebounded.\u00a0 Populations in New England have been reasonably stable since 1970.\u00a0 Some ornithologists believe that Herring Gulls may be more abundant now than they were historically before the egg and plumage collectors began to take a major toll on the populations.<\/p>\n Adult Herring Gulls are fairly easy to identify.\u00a0 Look for the pink legs to start with.\u00a0 The head, neck and undersides are white, often speckled with black in the winter (as seen in the photograph).\u00a0 The upper wings and the upper back (the mantle) are light gray.\u00a0 The wing tips are black with white spots (called mirrors).\u00a0 The eye is yellow.\u00a0 The massive bill is yellow to light orange with a red spot near the tip on either side.<\/p>\n Herring Gulls require four years to attain sexual maturity and therefore their adult plumage.\u00a0 The immature plumages of Herring Gulls are a bit trickier to master and separate from other large gulls but a little effort can be quite rewarding. \u00a0The timing of the molts varies greatly among individuals of the same age and an incomplete molt leading from winter (basic) to summer (alternate) plumage adds to the challenge of ageing a Herring Gull.<\/p>\n Take a look at your favorite field guide and you will see that the plumage of Herring Gulls gets lighter as they age.\u00a0 First-year gulls are mostly brown; their bills are dark.\u00a0 Second-year gulls are usually a bit lighter than first-years, particularly showing some white on the head and some gray feathers on the mantle.\u00a0 Their bills are black at the tip but are yellow at the base.\u00a0 Third-year birds still show some brown streaking on the head.\u00a0 Such a bird appears to be wearing a gray backpack, contrasting with the browner feathers on the outer part of the wing.\u00a0 The bill shows a bit of black at the tip.<\/p>\n The third-year plumage is the least frequently encountered plumage.\u00a0 Can you figure out why?\u00a0 To answer the question, let\u2019s follow four cohorts of gulls over four consecutive years.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say that 100 Herring Gulls are hatched each year and that 10% of them will die within a year.\u00a0 After those four years, we will then have 100 first-year gulls, 90- second-year gulls, 80 third-year gulls and 70 fourth-year gulls.\u00a0 But those fourth-year gulls are now in the adult or definitive plumage and will join the multiple-year class of adult birds.\u00a0 Herring Gulls typically live to be 15-20 years old, with some exceeding 30 years old.\u00a0 With this piling up of birds of many ages wearing the same clothes, It\u2019s not surprising that the adult plumage is the most commonly encountered, followed by first-year birds, then second-year birds, and finally the third-year birds.<\/p>\n [First published on November 12, 2013]<\/p>\n\n The Herring Gull is the most common and the most familiar gull in Maine.\u00a0 They are typically associated with the shorelines of the ocean, lakes and large rivers.\u00a0 These birds have readily adapted to human-altered landscapes so small flocks may hang out in parking lots, cadging French fries or other morsels from fast-food restaurant customers.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23371,420],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}