Slender-billed Gull
Chroicocephalus genei
Overview
The slender-billed gull (Chroicocephalus genei) is a mid-sized gull that breeds locally around the Mediterranean and the northwestern Indian Ocean. Most of the population is somewhat migratory, wintering in North Africa and India.
Identification
- 37 to 40 cm long with a wingspan of 90 to 102 cm, slightly larger than the black-headed gull but lacking a black summer hood.
- Features a pale grey body, white head and breast, and black tips on the primary wing feathers.
- Possesses a long, tapering dark red bill and long legs, giving it a long-necked appearance with a yellow iris.
- Immature birds display a black terminal tail band and dark wing areas, taking two years to reach maturity.
Habitat
Breeds in lagoons and lakes around the Mediterranean and similar locations in the northwestern Indian Ocean. Overwinters on coasts in estuaries and bays, while feeding in deltas, marshes, and grassland. Not a pelagic species, it is rarely seen far from land.
Diet
About half of its food consists of fish, which it catches by diving from a few metres above the water surface. It also probes mud for marine invertebrates and catches insects in flight, occasionally feeding on landfill sites.
Did you know?
A vagrant individual was reportedly seen on Antigua on 24 April 1976. In 2010, a colony on an island in a mountain lake in Algeria achieved an over 98% egg hatching rate due to a lack of predators and disturbance.