Yellow-legged Gull
Larus michahellis
These gulls are highly intelligent and have been observed using 'tool-like' behaviors, such as dropping hard-shelled mollusks onto rocks to break them open.
- Scientific name
- Larus michahellis
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Charadriiformes › Laridae › Larus
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- increasing
- Biome
- aquatic
- Habitat
- Coastal cliffs, rocky islands, salt marshes, and urban environments including rooftops.
- Diet
- Omnivorous; feeds on fish, crustaceans, insects, small mammals, eggs, and human refuse.
- Range
- Mediterranean Basin, Atlantic Coast of Europe, North Africa, Macaronesia
- Size
- Wingspan: 120-155 cm; Weight: 750-1,250 g
- Lifespan
- 15-25 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Plastic ingestion, chemical pollution, and localized culling programs due to urban overpopulation.
- Safe to approach?
- Generally harmless but can be defensive and aggressive near nests. Avoid feeding them to prevent scavenging behavior. If dive-bombed, calmly leave the area. If bitten, wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water and monitor for infection.
The yellow-legged gull ( Larus michahellis ), sometimes referred to as western yellow-legged gull (to distinguish it from eastern populations of yellow-legged large white-headed gulls), is a large gull of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Caspian gull L. cachinnans , or more broadly as a subspecies of the herring gull L. argentatus . The genus name is...
Photo: Jörg Hempel, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist
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