The Slender-billed Gull is a mid-sized, long-billed gull that keeps a clean white head all year instead of growing a dark hood. It breeds around the Mediterranean and east to Pakistan and isn't found in the United States, though one was reported on the Caribbean island of Antigua in 1976.
Appearance
- Appearance
- About 14.5–17 in (37–44 cm) long with a 35–40 in (90–102 cm) wingspan. Pale gray back, white head and breast with a faint pink blush, dark red bill and legs, and a pale yellow eye.
Look-alikes
Black-headed GullChroicocephalus ridibundus
Slender-billed is a bit larger with a longer, thinner bill and a long, gently sloping forehead, and it never gets a dark hood in summer.
Why they get mixed upSimilar size, pale gray back, and red bill and legs.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Coastal lagoons
- Estuaries
- Bays
- Range
- Breeds locally around the Mediterranean and the northwestern Indian Ocean, including Pakistan; most birds winter south to North Africa and India. A few stray to western Europe.
- Preferred conditions
- Stays near land in coastal wetlands, deltas, and marshes; it is not a bird of the open ocean.
Behavior
- Diet
- About half fish, caught by plunging from a few feet up; also probes mud for small marine animals, snaps up flying insects, and visits landfills.
- Social life
- Social in winter, gathering in flocks and roosting together.
Life cycle
- Nest
- Nests in colonies on the ground.
- Clutch size
- Up to 3 eggs
- Incubation
- About 25 days
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
- Status
- Protected under the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement ().
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