Great black-backed gull

"King of gulls" redirects here. For the small gull which is a non-migratory breeding resident endemic to the Atlantic Ocean coastline of South Africa and Namibia, see king gull.

Great black-backed gull
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
Genus: Larus
Species:
L. marinus
Binomial name
Larus marinus
Distribution across the Northern Hemisphere.
  Breeding summer visitor
  Breeding resident
  Passage
  Non-breeding wintering visitor

The great black-backed gull (Larus marinus) is the largest member of the gull and tern family Laridae. It is a very aggressive hunter, pirate and scavenger which breeds on the North Atlantic coasts and islands of northern Europe and northeastern North America. Southern populations are generally sedentary, while those breeding in the far north (northern Norway, northwest Russia) migrate farther south in winter. A few also move inland to large lakes and reservoirs. The adult has a white head, neck and underparts, dark blackish-grey wings and back, pink legs and the bill yellow with a red spot.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.