Lesser black-backed gull

Lesser black-backed gull
Larus fuscus graellsii with red and silver leg rings; England
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Laridae
Genus:	Larus
Species:	L. fuscus
Binomial name
Larus fuscus Linnaeus, 1758

Lesser black-backed gull in 1st cycle plumage

The lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) is a large gull that breeds on the Atlantic coasts of Europe. It is migratory, wintering from the British Isles south to West Africa. It is a regular winter visitor to the east coast of North America, probably from the breeding population in Iceland.

Breeding

This species breeds colonially on coasts and lakes, making a lined nest on the ground or a cliff. Normally, three eggs are laid. In some cities the species nests within the urban environment, often in association with herring gulls.^[2]

Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

Description

They are smaller than the herring gull. The taxonomy of the herring gull / lesser black-backed gull complex is very complicated; different authorities recognise between two and eight species. This group has a ring distribution around the northern hemisphere. Differences between adjacent forms in this ring are fairly small, but by the time the circuit is completed, the end members, herring gull and lesser black-backed gull, are clearly different species. The lesser black-backed gull measures 51–64 cm (20–25 in), 124–150 cm (49–59 in) across the wings and weighs 452–1,100 g (0.996–2.425 lb), with the nominate race averaging slightly smaller than the other two subspecies.^[3] Males, at average weight of 824 g (1.817 lb), are slightly larger than females, at an average of 708 g (1.561 lb). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 38.3 to 45 cm (15.1 to 17.7 in), the bill is 4.2 to 5.8 cm (1.7 to 2.3 in) and the tarsus is 5.2 to 6.9 cm (2.0 to 2.7 in).^[4][5][6] A confusable species is the great black-backed gull. The lesser is a much smaller bird, with slimmer build, yellow rather than pinkish legs, and smaller white "mirrors" at the wing tips. The adults have black or dark grey wings (depending on race) and back. The bill is yellow with a red spot which young peck at, inducing feeding (see fixed action pattern). The head is greyer in winter, unlike great black-backed.

Young birds have scaly black-brown upperparts and a neat wing pattern. They take four years to reach maturity. Identification from juvenile herring gulls is most readily done by the more solidly dark (unbarred) tertial feathers.

The call is a "laughing" cry like that of the herring gull (to which this species is closely related), but with a markedly deeper pitch.

Feeding

They are omnivores like most Larus gulls, and they will eat fish, insects, crustaceans, worms, starfish, molluscs, seeds, berries, small mammals, eggs, small birds, chicks, scraps, offal, and carrion.

Subspecies

There are five subspecies:

• L. f. graellsii – Brehm, 1857: Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, British Isles, western Europe. Mantle dark grey.
• L. f. intermedius – Schiøler, 1922: Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, southwest Sweden & western Norway. Mantle sooty black.
• L. f. fuscus – Linnaeus, 1758: northern Norway, Sweden & Finland to the White Sea. Mantle jet black.
• L. f. heuglini – Bree, 1876: northern Russia to north-central Siberia.
• L. f. barabensis – Johansen, 1960: central Asia

See also – ring species.

Gallery

• 

  Mother gull and her baby

• 

  Close up

• 

  L. f. graellsii in flight off the coast of Skomer, Wales

• 

  A lesser black-backed gull (L. fuscus) behind a herring gull (L. argentatus) in Norway

• 

  Flying in a lake near the city hall in Reykjavik

• 

  ID composite

See also

• Kelp Gull (AKA Southern black-backed gull)
• Great black-backed gull

References

1. BirdLife International (2012). "Larus fuscus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
2. "The Urban Gull – a new phenomenon". Retrieved 15 September 2009.
3. "Lesser black-backed gull". All About Birds. Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
4. Olsen, Klaus Malling; Larsson, Hans (2004). Gulls: Of North America, Europe, and Asia. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691119977.
5. Harrison, Peter (1991). Seabirds: An Identification Guide. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-395-60291-1.
6. Dunning, John B., Jr., ed. (1992). CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5.

• Field Guide to the Birds of North America. National Geographic. ISBN 0-7922-6877-6.
• del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A.; Sargatal, J., eds. (1992). Handbook of the Birds of the World 3. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. p. 405. ISBN 84-87334-10-5.
• Sibley, David Allen (2000). The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Knopf. p. 483. ISBN 0-679-45122-6.
• Mayr, E. (1964). Systematics and the Origin of Species. p. 180. Standard Book Number: 486-21212-2.

External links

• Lesser black-backed gull pages on www.gull-research.org
• Lesser black-backed gulls in Amsterdam
• BirdLife species factsheet for Larus fuscus
• Larus fuscus on Avibase
• Lesser black-backed gull videos, photos, and sounds at the Internet Bird Collection
• Lesser black-backed gull photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Interactive range map of Larus fuscus at IUCN Red List maps
• Audio recordings of Lesser black-backed gull on Xeno-canto.
• Larus fuscus in the Flickr: Field Guide Birds of the World
• Lesser black-backed gull media at ARKive