Wildlife
Gulls, especially chip-stealing herring gulls, are a common sight around Britain's coasts and seaside towns and are increasingly found inland. They evolved more than 15 million years ago in the northern Atlantic and spread globally. They are typically grey or white with black markings on the head or wings, webbed feet and stout bills. With around 25 species, the genus contains most of the world's gulls. However, classification has recently become very complicated with species being moved between the different gull groups. The great black-backed gull is the largest gull in the world.
Scientific name: Larus
Rank: Genus
In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.
Sea gull ID
Michaela Strachan shares her top tips for ID-ing three of the most common species.
They’re everywhere - calling, stealing your chips, making a mess – but what do you really know about our sea gulls?
Landfill life
Rubbish tips are an attractive resource for winter scavengers.
Rubbish tips are an attractive resource for winter scavengers.
Landfill gulls
The North Thames Gull Group visit an Essex landfill site to monitor the gull population.
The North Thames Gull Group visit an Essex landfill site to monitor the gull population.
Thieves and thugs
Gulls have a terrible reputation in cities, but the seaside wouldn't be right without them.
Gulls have a terrible reputation in cities, but the seaside wouldn't be right without them.
A gull's history of Britain
Cleaning Britain's air drastically changed the gull's view of Britain.
Cleaning Britain's air drastically changed the gull's view of Britain.
The shading illustrates the diversity of this group - the darker the colour the greater the number of species. Data provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Larus is a large genus of gulls with worldwide distribution (although by far the greatest species diversity is in the Northern Hemisphere). Many of its species are abundant and well-known birds in their ranges. Until about 2005–2007, most gulls were placed in this genus, but this arrangement is now known to be polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection of the genera Ichthyaetus, Chroicocephalus, Leucophaeus, and Hydrocoloeus (this last had been recognized more often than the other genera) for several species traditionally included in Larus.
They are in general medium to large birds, typically grey or white, often with black markings on the head or wings. They have stout, longish bills and webbed feet.
The taxonomy of the large gulls in the Herring and Lesser Black-backed complex is very complicated, different authorities recognising between two and eight species. See also Hybridisation in gulls.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.
BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
Great black-backed gull
Herring gull
Lesser black-backed gull
