Banner image - Ring-billed Gull photo by Melissa Groo

For the past 19 years, Winthrop Harbor in northern Illinois has hosted its annual Gull Frolic. Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled for 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To commemorate what is typically a fun winter day for birding, the Up & Up will dedicate this month’s article to gulls! Let’s dive in and get to know a bit more about these seabirds in the spirit of the Gull Frolic.

Gulls make up the family Laridae, along with their closely related cousins, terns. While you are out gull-watching, you can tell them apart from terns through a few physical differences: terns are typically smaller than gulls, do not have hooked beaks, and the terns in our area tend to have angular tails and wings. Furthermore, they have black caps and often fly with their bills pointed down.

While there are many gull species in the Laridae family (over 40!), their plumage variety does not differ much, consisting of white bodies with blue/grey coloration on their wings, and some black feathers on their wing-tips in some species. If they don’t vary much in plumage, they do vary in size, with the Little Gull weighing in at less than 5 oz and less than a foot in length, to the Great Black-backed Gull weighing almost 4 lbs and 2.5 ft in length. Gulls can also fly quite fast (topping out at 28mph!), and will eat a variety of foods such as small fish, mollusks, crustaceans, berries, and also look to scavenge human foods that they can find. Finally, a couple little-known and fun facts to round out our gull basics:

Most people colloquially just call them seagulls, but this is actually a misnomer because many gulls spend most of their time in or around freshwater.
They have also adapted some interesting survival skills like drinking salty ocean water if needed, and the ability to flush salt from their body with specialized glands above their eyes. This allows them to spend a lot of time foraging for food in salty ocean water without having to return to land to hydrate. Read more at Save Coastal Wildlife.

Because of their proximity to humans at beaches and parking lots, and their proclivity to look to snatch human food, most people don’t see gulls in a favorable light. However, these birds possess advanced communication skills, are protective parents, and have managed to adapt quite well to world now dominated by humans. While it can seem like gulls are just milling around noisily, they are actually engaging in complex social behaviors. You can see carefully choreographed postures and nuanced vocalizations, communicating everything from the presence of food to incoming predators. Many interactions show varied emotions such as anger, submission, hunger, cooperation, and pair-bonding. Their parenting behaviors are strikingly advanced as well. Both males and females watch young chicks together, protecting helpless hatchlings. One will typically forage for food while the other will watch the nest. They will also call in their neighboring gulls in the nesting colony for help to get rid of stubborn predators, joining together for protection. Read more at All About Birds.

The greater Chicago area has some beautiful gulls for us to see. Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls live year-round in Illinois, and during the winter, the Iceland (which actually consists of 3 forms: the Kumlien’s, Thayer’s, and white-winged), and Glaucous Gulls join them. Read more at Bird Watchers Digest.

Let’s take some time to get to know them:

Ring-billed Gulls are common throughout North America, and can not only be found year-round in Illinois, but also in other states bordering the Great Lakes. They were unfortunately hunted relentlessly throughout the 19th century, but have made a very strong comeback. These are sociable gulls with which you might be familiar because they have adapted well to human civilization, hanging around in parking lots scavenging for food. They have white bodies, grey wings with black tips, and of course their namesake black-ringed beaks. Some great spots to see these birds in their natural element are North Ave. Beach in Lincoln Park, Loyola Park (Cook County), and Montrose Point. Read more in the Audubon field guide; Check out E-Bird sightings in Illinois.

Herring Gulls are also common throughout the Chicago area year-round. Their numbers declined sharply during the 19th century when hunted for eggs and feathers, but with protection have increased greatly during the 20th century. You can find them on coasts, bays, beaches, lakes, piers, farmlands, dumps. These birds are opportunistic and omnivorous feeders, eating fish, crustaceans, mollusks, sea urchins, marine worms, birds, eggs, and insects. Underscoring the gull’s ingenuity, they may even carry hard-shelled prey in the air and drop it to break it open! You can identify them by their grey back with black wingtips. Be on the lookout in Winthrop Harbor, Montrose Point, and Jackson Beach. Read more in the Audubon field guide; Check out E-Bird sightings in Illinois.

Iceland Gulls are winter visitors for us in the Chicago area. The various forms nest in different areas of the world: the white-winged form in Greenland, the Kumlien’s form in northeastern Canada, and the Thayer’s form nests in far northern Canada. Unlike their Ring-billed cousins, human activities have not affected their populations much (hopefully this remains given the effects of global warming in their habitat). However, they also have white bodies, grey wings, but with less black in the tips of their wings than Ring-bills. They’ve also been known to scavenge for human food, and will eat mollusks, small fish, crustaceans, and berries. Iceland Gulls will nest on rocky cliffs, mostly in protected bays and fjords rather than on exposed coastline. Look out for these gulls in Lincoln Park’s Diversey Harbor and especially Winthrop Harbor. Read more in the Audubon field guide; Check out E-Bird sightings in Illinois.

Similar to Iceland Gulls, we see Glaucous Gulls only in winter here. They nest in even colder areas than Iceland Gulls, common in the high Arctic. Physically, they are larger than Iceland Gulls, and juveniles feature a pink bill with a black tip. Their bodies are mostly white with grey wings, though they typically lack black markings on the wingtips. Given their remote habitat, human activities have not affected them much either (again, hopefully this sustains!). Like other gulls, they are omnivorous, featuring a diet similar to Iceland Gulls, and also sometimes scavenging. Glaucous Gulls nest on cliff tops, flat rocky ground, rocky outcrops, and sometimes on ice or snow. Winthrop Harbor is a great spot to find them, but also watch for them in Montrose Point. Read more in the Audubon field guide; Check out E-Bird sightings in Illinois.

As a bonus, the Black-legged Kittiwake has been spotted recently in Lake County! This is a very rare development, as these birds are typically found only on the coasts of North America. It feeds mainly on fish, but will eat other ocean dwellers like crustaceans and mollusks; it does not feed at garbage dumps unlike many gull species. You can distinguish this gull through its black legs (hence its name) and somewhat darker grey wings. Juveniles will have more black feathers around the neck and a black beak. Hopefully we can all get lucky and see this rare species! Check out E-bird sightings in Illinois.

While it is a huge loss not having the Gull Frolic this year, the Chicago Audubon Society encourages you to seek out these graceful seabirds around the coast of Lake Michigan this winter. Gulls are not just the occasional beach or parking lot nuisance, but intelligent, adaptable, and variously beautiful. We are truly lucky to have many great spots to find them!

Sources

Bird Watchers Digest- Birds of Illinois in Winter

All About Birds - A Noble Vision of Gulls

Illinois Department of Natural Resources - Gulls of Illinois, Beauties or Beasts? (PDF)

Save Coastal Wildlife - Have We All Missed The Point About Seagulls?

Surfing cropped.jpg — Drew McPartlin

Drew is a local writer who has a passion for helping people understand just how fascinating and important birds are (and he loves to surf!)