Ring-billed gull

Photographed with a 135mm f/1.8 Plena lens on a Z7ii Nikon camera.

I am not much of a fan of gulls, mostly because I find them a pain to identify.  I have included a composite of photos (5 taken from the All About Birds website) to give you an idea of what I mean (below).  Besides the juvenile, winter, adult, breeding, and non-breeding variations, you also have regional variations and interbreeding with other gull species.  Of course, I have lamented on this issue before.

Variations on the ring-billed gull, 5 images copied from All About Birds website.

Ring-billed gulls are more common inland than they are around major bodies of water.  It is interesting that one of the places they are said to frequent are "shopping malls."  Like many gulls, they will eat almost anything they can fit down their gullet.  This is one of the reasons they are often found around garbage dumps.  This is another reason I am not fond of gulls; they are sometimes identified as "flying rats."

The colour of the bill and legs are two important identifying marks on gulls.  Although identification can sometimes be difficult, these two features can be used to help verify the species.  Feathers are, of course, the preferred way to determine species, but with gulls the variance of plumage within species and simultaneous similarities with other Laridea make the whole thing insane.

Anyway, that's my rant for today.  

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com