# 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.

- **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.

## About

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...

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/442b7d00-ab57-488d-8176-652bb879cd4f
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/59202
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larus michahellis
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/12831/medium.jpg (Jörg Hempel, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.