gull

Any of a group of seabirds that are usually 25–75 cm/10–30 in long, white with grey or black on the back and wings, and have large beaks. Immature birds are normally a mottled brown colour. Gulls are sociable, noisy birds and they breed in colonies. (Genus principally Larus, subfamily Larinae, family Laridae, order Charadriiformes.)

The common black-headed gull (L. ridibundus), common on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, is grey and white with (in summer) a dark-brown head and a red beak; it breeds in large colonies on wetlands, making a nest of dead rushes and laying, on average, three eggs. The great black-headed gull (L. ichthyaetus) is native to Asia. The herring gull (L. argentatus), common in the northern hemisphere, has white and pearl-grey plumage and a yellow beak. The oceanic great black-backed gull (L. marinus), found in the Atlantic, is over 75 cm/2.5 ft long.

The kelp gull or Southern black-backed gull (L. dominicanus) is common throughout the southern hemisphere. It feeds mainly on limpets, which are swallowed whole, with the shell later spat out and left in a heap around the nest area.