The Herring Gull

Read more about American gulls.

      With the coming of the white man to the western world many native birds have decreased in number and some have become extinct; but others, like the gulls, have adapted themselves to man's habits and seem to be increasing in number. Familiar in the Chicago area are two large species: the herring gull and the ringbilled gull. As scavengers these birds have become an asset, and in Chicago we find them not only along the lake front and on the park lagoons but in west Chicago along the drainage canal, the dumps and the refuse heaps. 

       Gulls eat fish, shell-fish such as clams, and anything else that floats their way. Formerly they caught the fish in the lakes or ate the food washed to shore by the waves, but today large flocks follow transoceanic ships far out to sea, and fishing schooners are circled by hungry gulls. Their services as sanitation squads are of great value. They gather in harbors where fish are being dressed and devour the portions cast off by the fishermen. They gather where garbage is dumped and clean the water of floating refuse. 
       Gulls are masters of the air. They often flap along on an easy course, but when high winds circulate through the upper layers of air they can be seen wheeling and circling with ease, in complete control of speed and direction. Although these birds are also adept swimmers they prefer fishing from the surface rather than diving. 

       In spring as soon as the ice has melted, the gulls return to their birthplace and raise their young on some gravel-strewn beach of an isolated northern lake. Certain islands are renowned for their populous summer communities of gulls. Often the islands are covered with such hosts of birds that one might wonder how the individual bird can locate its own nest. The nests are close together, but each pair of birds has its own premises of about 100 to 300 square yards and no bird ever fails to find its own home. The entire gull community is laid out in private lots and each family keeps within its own territory. After the young have been hatched they do not wander from home, for no older bird will allow trespassing, and any young one who has strayed from its home grounds will be promptly attacked and quite probably killed before it can find shelter. It seldom happens that both parents are absent from home at the same time, so the young birds are being continually corralled and guarded. 

       Usually the nest is placed on the ground and is built of coarse grass, roots, sticks or moss. It contains two or three eggs. Both parent birds incubate the eggs and care for the young. By the last of July the older chicks are having their first swim and early in September the birds begin to fly south, so that by mid-October the whole colony has disappeared. 

       Herring gulls do not don the beautiful silvery gray attire of the adult until they are about four years old. The first three years the plumage is a dark brownish slate color. 

• Why Gulls Love Wrigley Field, Especially After 4PM
• Herring Gull at Loyola Park in Chicago
• The Sea Gull by Mary Howitt