Its getting warmer and sunnier so it is no surprise if you will soon hear the unique cry of baby seagulls. I live in a seafront town so we have an abundance of seagulls. Come spring, the number of babies is astounding. In particular, I am talking about herring gulls. These are the massive noisier gulls you might see. They are also famous for their aggression. Check my other posts out if you have found a baby seagull and not sure what to do, or check out the baby seagull FAQ.
These seagulls have complex behaviours and are clever birds that like to hang around in large groups. Vocal sounds and body language are very important in communication. They also enjoy personal space. For a bird that is seen in large groups, personal space is extremely important. The breaching of it can result in fights. Herring gulls have courtship behaviours where a female will approach a male with a call similar to a chick. If he is interested, he will reply with his own special call and regurgitate some food as an offering. Once she accepts, they will find a nest site and prepare it. This species of seagull prefer to stay together for life and are fiercely protective of any chicks they rear. Whilst raptors prey on herring gulls, it is known that herring gulls with chicks are strong enough and bold enough to face up to a raptor after their young.
Seagull chicks are dependent on their parents for the first 3 months. By then, the fledglings would be able to feed themselves, although parents may continue to care for fledglings till they are 6 months old. If you live near a beach (or an urbanized area), you will be familiar with the call of a baby seagull, a whiny long sounds that carries far. That sound is sometimes so pitiful and needy, even I feel a desire to feed the baby! To make their parents feed them, they would tap on the red part of the parent’s beak. The parent would then regurgitate a meal for them.
Juvenile seagulls look quite different from their parents, instead of the clean white with grey wings, first year juveniles have blotchy grey, black and white feathers on their wings, brown flecks on cream up their neck and head and a black beak. Second winter juveniles have less brown flecks on their necks, the cream coming through more, a lighter grey coming through on the upper wing areas and a pinker beak. By the third winter, gulls will have a whiter head and neck with less brown streaks, a light grey wing that still retains some brown dark grey feathers, and a yellowing beak. They become full adults, able to breed at the age of four years which may seem like a long time but seagulls have long lifespans, some reaching well over thirty years in life if lucky.
Occasionally you will see a juvenile wondering around calling its baby cry and no parent in sight. My advice is to leave it well alone and observe from a distance. Chances are it is a fledgling and it’s parent is not far away. Only after a long period of time of seeing no adults should you intervene. Due to the protective nature of parents approaching a chick or a nest can be very dangerous. Parents will make loud warning squawks and then dive at trespassers. Seagulls will attack viciously with claws and wings and will even resort to loosening their bowels and vomiting on their enemies.
(A herring gull with it’s wings opening. Very pretty!)
Interestingly, when they become independent, I have noticed at my local beach, juveniles prefer to hang out with other juveniles and adults prefer to be with adults. This makes some parts of the beach look like nurseries for gulls. I also realised that when people feed chips to the ‘nursery’ gulls, the adult gulls would not fly over and compete. Gull behaviour is certainly interesting and different to some of the other birds around my area. I will definitely keep an eye out for them this year.
There are many species and sub-species of gulls and sometimes it can be quite challenging to identify them. If you are interested in gulls or bird watching, I recommend this award-winning book – Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America
Very important, if you want to enjoy this book fully, do not get the kindle version. This book simply not made for kindle – it turns colourful pictures into black and white which loses the whole point of having photographs. Instead, get the hardcover version and I am sure you will love it.
Aside from herring gulls, we have black headed gulls chilling at the beach.
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I have got friendly with two herring gulls, the male is very big and i call him hector, he now knows his name and, his wife gertie, they are nesting on top of my neighbours roof and, have now got a baby gull about 2 weeks old, I feed them every day and, in the bad weather they don't come down. They seem to know me now but I am aware that they can attack and, hope this won't happen to me as it is a wall on a flat roof where they are fed. Some times hector is faster than me when I put down their food and, I gently shoe him away while i place the food and then call him back. I wonder if they will leave when baby has grown and, can look after its self ??? I also have a large cat who lies in one of my flower pots and watches them come down but, he is weary of them. Has anyone an answer re them leaving the site.???
Hi Leslova,
I'm not too sure what will happen once the chick is older but after a few weeks, parents generally abandon their gulls to look after themselves. Whether this means they leave the area or not, I am unsure. They might physically stop feeding the chick themselves but may stay above your neighbours roof because there is a good source of food from you.
Thanks for sharing, let me know what happens with the chick!
Enmee
It's June in Monterey bay and I'm seeing tons of little fluffy herring babies atop roofs and at the nesting sites of their parents. One thing that is funny is to see the larger, flight and hunting capable herring juveniles making the same sounds as a tiny fledgling. I saw a large juvenile attempt to make these whiny calls in the presence of a presumably unrelated adult and it was quickly apprehended with a sharp bite.
Hi Lizzo,
Thank you for sharing! That is an interesting little story, what a cheeky juvenile! I hope he learnt his lesson.
Enmee
Hi.
We have inherited a baby seagull, we suspect about 35-40 days old. He (?) cant fly but is flapping his wings and preening himself. I'm guessing he tried to fly and landed quite soon after. However we have 2 cats who are very accomplished hunters so are between a rock and a hard place! The cats are outdoor cats, and so is the seagull! Its parents are around, but when I placed the baby gull on my shed roof for overnight, by morning it had fallen off and got stuck, so had to be rescued again. We've got some really good pictures of the gull, which you are welcome to! Unfortunately, we're going to have to put the gull in a cat carrier overnight for its own safety from ours and the many cats around here, but obviously cant leave it in there all night and day whilst we're out. We've fed it fish and given it water, but if you get this any help and suggestions would be appreciated!
Cheers, Lee
Last year gulls nested ion chimney pots opposite and produced a lone chick. Sidney. He had a difficult few weeks when fledging, falling down the pitched roof into the guttering. Eventually he triumphed. His parents have returned to chimney pots to nest. Sidney has never strayed too far. Now whenever a parent flies in Sidney behaves in a very needy fashion, making baby sounds and prostrating himself. This behaviour is treated with parental indifference and they take off. What is going on??
The houses behind us are very close and there is a breeding pair about five houses away. Now usually she has two or three chicks but last year they both disappeared so this year she has only had one chick (one very loud chick). Every year I have fed her scraps and this year I've put water out and she's even talked hubby into coming down to sample the wares. All I have to do is click my fingers and her head pops up. I think they're herring gulls but I need to check. But the picture above with the pebble beach and groyne looks like my beach on the south coast.
The picture was taken in South east England :)
Yesterday morning I was awakened by the squealy whistles of a juvenile gull who had fallen from its nest into the courtyard out back, its poor mamma was so distressed, it was strange because regardless of the extreme difference of species the cries of a mother terrified for her child translated to the same painful tug on the heart & an understanding between 2 females. I managed to talk my building manager into putting the youngster on a ledge close to the roof & we were relieved to have helped it get back beside its mum. Can you imagine my concern when this morning I was awakened by 'mamma' again fretting over a different juvenile who'd suffered the same bad luck as its sibling only the previous day but junior has landed in an awkward part of the property which means I can't get him near the nest. The wee bird's safe enough & mamma has kept close so I have put out a dish of water & got enough tuna, sardines & berries to last junior a few days to build his strength up & get him ready take to the skies on another adventure. My heart goes out to juniors poor mamma who must be questioning her choice of location for the family home. She's been great letting me go out with fresh water & food without diving me or screaming, she's kept close watch & made a kind of quiet chattering noise to let me know she's a concerned mum who's ready to swoop to the defence of her child if needs be. I wonder if she knows Junior's not in immediate danger after yesterday's rescue mission. I like the idea of women's intuition transcending species
I look out onto a building that has a flat roof with a ledge that the gulls seem to rest and clean them selves (I lovve watching them )from my living room )But when the young one approaches his mother and tapping her beak she just walks away from it and sits at the other end of the ledge that goes on for a while then it gives up and just sits there .
SAD.
yesterday my little sister found and now adopted this baby seagull here in Calgary,but we are not sure what it eats or how old it really is. it's head is spotted what looks like light gray,dark gray and back,the front is white and close to it's neck it it turn a nice light gray, the tip of it's beak is red then it turn to what looks like black???.it hasn't mabe a sound yet and it can't fly
@sheona what a both sad and elevating story. I notice the date is last year, and I'm wondering what happened to the baby gull.
It's unlikely you'll come back here after a year, but I'd love to hear what happened.
The feeling of that tug on your heart from a baby seagulls call, I know very well as I live on the coast. I'm fascinated with the gulls nearby, the nest on our rooftops and as we live in a bungalow we get a great view of all the goings on.
A pair of seagulls nested on a building near a pool in my condo complex. The adult seagulls would come in the pool while I was swimming. They would keep to one side of the pool and I would keep to the other. Now the young seagull comes into the pool. Only the young seagull swims right up to me. When I back up it swims closer. When I swim away it follows me. It did this the other day with the mama seagull nearby and she didn't mind that her young seagull was getting so close to me. The young seagull has also flown straight to me.
I have no idea what this behavior means and would love it if anyone can give me some insight.