This website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and ensure the functionality of our site. For more detailed information about the types of cookies we use and how we protect your privacy, please visit our Privacy Information page.

×

Cookie Settings

This website uses different types of cookies to enhance your experience. Please select your preferences below:

Larus argentatus, Herring gull

Common name (e.g. turtle)

Genus + Species (e.g. Caretta caretta)

  • Back to search
  • About this page
    • More Info
    • Plus d'info
    • Mais info
  • Languages
    • Bahasa/Malay
    • Bangla
    • Chinese(Si)
    • Chinese(Tr)
    • Deutsch
    • English
    • Español
    • Farsi
    • Français
    • Greek
    • Hindi
    • Italiano
    • Lao
    • Nederlands
    • Português(Br)
    • Português(Pt)
    • Russian
    • Swedish
    • Thai
    • Vietnamese
  • Feedback
    • Comments & Corrections 
  • Citation
  • Upload
    • Upload photo
  • Related species
    • Species in
        Larus
    • Species in
        Laridae
    • - Classification -
    • Laridae
    • Charadriiformes
    • Aves
    • Chordata
    • Animalia
  • Search

Larus argentatus   Pontoppidan, 1763

Herring gull
Upload your photos 
 All pictures | Google image |
Image of Larus argentatus (Herring gull)
Larus argentatus

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | CoL | ITIS | WoRMS

Aves | Charadriiformes | Laridae

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Others; freshwater; brackish.  Tropical; 84°N - 36°S, 130°W - 128°E (Ref. 124582)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions

Indo-Pacific, Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic. Tropical to polar.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm Max length : 66.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 8812); max. published weight: 1.1 kg (Ref. 356)

Short description Morphology

Culmen: 5.09 cm; tarsus: 5.715 cm; wing: 41.15 cm.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Total Length: 56 to 66 cm; Wingspan: 137 (Ref. 8812) to 147 cm (Ref. 84934). Total population is unknown but with over 1,000,000 pairs in the Palearctic and over 150,000 pairs in eastern North America. Population has expanded and is now considered a pest in some European countries (Ref. 84934). Colonies of these birds can extend to 2 km (Ref. 87784). It has a 70% dispersal rate (Ref. 87790). Dipping; surface seizing; shallow plunge diving; coastal; <100 km (Ref. 356). Largely dependent on freshwater and terrestrial environments. Feeds mostly on non-fish vertebrate prey. In the North Sea off the coasts of Scotland and northern England, is known to partially feed on the sandeel, Ammodytes marinus (Ref. 95711). Breeds colonially in a wide variety of habitats including roofs in North America, Europe and northeast Asia (Ref. 84934). One of its observed behavior is to balance between attack and fleeing, these birds redirects their aggression and attack to a substitute object like grass pulling (Ref. 87789). As for coloniality, they visit breeding colonies for a year to select a colony, a potential nesting site, and to obtain a mate to determine if the site is where young are successfully reared (Ref. 84934).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Stiles, F.G. 1984. (Ref. 5856)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-2)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 19 August 2021

CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Human uses


| FishSource |

Tools

E-book | Field guide

More information

Trophic Ecology
Food items
Diet composition
Food consumption
Food rations
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
Population dynamics
Growth
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Fecundity
Spawning
Eggs
Egg development
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Human Related
Aquaculture profiles
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
Collaborators
Taxonomy
Common names
Synonyms
Morphology
Pictures
References
References

Internet sources

BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Publication : search) | Fishipedia | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | Gomexsi | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 2.6 - 24.3, mean 10.1 (based on 3678 cells).
Resilience (Ref. 69278): High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (K=23.52-45.31).
Vulnerability (Ref. 71543): Moderate to high vulnerability (46 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766): Unknown.

Comments & Corrections
Back to Search
Random Species
Back to Top