Loafing at parks, swarming over lakes, and roosting atop floodlights, Ring-billed Gulls are a familiar sight to many Americans. Industrial farming practices, the proliferation of open garbage dumps, and the end of human persecution in the 1920s have allowed this "land gull" to thrive across most of North America over the last 40 years. Many bird watchers begin to learn the fine details of gull identification by observing the cosmopolitan and obliging Ring-billed Gull.

The Ring-billed Gull's range has expanded exponentially since the 1960s, and at various times it may be found anywhere in North America south of the boreal forests. These gulls breed across the middle section of North America, from coast to coast, with concentrations in northern California, the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Ring-billed Gull's wintering range covers most of the United States, with the exception of the upper Great Plains, parts of the Rocky Mountains, and the desert southwest. In winter, they concentrate around human habitations, landfills, and coasts.

 

A legend for the range map to the right can be found here.

The Ring-billed Gull's large populations have been growing rapidly since the 1960s. From 1967 to 1976, these increases averaged 7.9% each year, then rose to 11% per year between 1976 and 1984. Some regions, like those along the St. Lawrence River, experienced an annual population growth of over 20%. Since the mid-1990s, Christmas Bird Count data suggest a significant slowdown in this growth rate, with larger fluctuations in wintering populations.

Following decimation by feather hunters, egg hunters, and land grabbers, Ring-billed Gull populations recovered in only a few decades. This "land gull" has adapted to urbanized and industrialized landscapes, but its future depends on how Americans manage its abundance. For some landowners and water resource managers, Ring-billed Gulls have become undesirable, with large flocks picking through landfills and winter fields, and inhabiting lakes used for recreation and water supplies. The technique of scaring gulls from roosts and breeding colonies has had some success. The adaptable Ring-billed Gulls quickly find other food sources and roosting sites, like the roofs of industrial buildings in the Great Lakes region. In Ontario during the 1980's and 1990's, colony sites were bulldozed or covered with monofilament wire, sometimes in the effort to decrease predation by Ring-billed Gulls on Tern colonies. Results were mixed. The systematic destruction of Ring-billed Gull eggs does control population, but is required annually to remain effective. Better management of landfills, including partial incineration of waste and timely covering of new refuse, might help control gull populations.

 

Embrace winter at a winter birding festival. Find Ring-billed Gulls among many other species at the annual Niagara River International Gull Festival in December, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada; or the annual Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival every January in California.

 

Support the robust regulation of North America's water and become familiar with the latest revisions of federal regulations, like the Clean Water Act. Share your ideas and concerns with your state and federal representatives, who can help enact legislation to keep our water cleaner.

 

For more actions you can take, including Audubon activities, please visit our resources page.

Visit our resources page for more information about this species.

Belant J.L.; Ickes S.K.; Seamans T.W. "Importance of landfills to urban-nesting herring and ring-billed gulls." Landscape and Urban Planning 43:1 (28 December 1998) 11-19.

 

Dwyer, Chris, Jerrod L. Belant, and Richard A. Dolbeer. "Distribution and Nesting of Roof-Nesting Gulls in the Great Lakes Region of the United States." Ohio Journal of Science 96:1 (1996) 9-12.

 

Morris, R. D., H. Blokpoel, and G. D. Tessier. "Management efforts for the conservation of common tern Sterna hirundo colonies in the Great Lakes: Two case histories." Biological Conservation 60:1 1992() 7-14.

 

Ryder, J. P. 1993. Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawerensis). In The Birds of North America, No. 33 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists' Union.

 

Sauer, J. R., J. E. Hines, and J. Fallon. 2005. The North American Breeding Bird Survey, Results and Analysis 1966 - 2005. Version 6.2.2006. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD.