Meet the Heart and Soul of America's Oldest and Largest Bird Count
Geoff LeBaron has led Audubon's Christmas Bird Count for the last 32 years, long before crowdsourcing scientific data was in fashion.
Non-breeding adult. Photo: Tom Benson/Flickr (CC BY NC ND 2.0)
Larus fuscus
Conservation status | Numbers and distribution have expanded greatly during the last century. |
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Family | Gulls and Terns |
Habitat | Beaches, bays, coasts, garbage dumps. Mostly along coast, including bays, estuaries, coastal islands; also around lakes inland, especially Great Lakes and elsewhere in northeast. Concentrates around sources of food, such as garbage dumps, fishing harbors. |
Forages by swooping down to sea surface in flight, or picks up items while swimming, walking, or wading. May steal food from other birds.
(3, sometimes 1-4) brown or olive to blue-green, usually blotched with dark brown. Incubation is by both sexes, 24-27 days. Young: Both parents feed young. Downy young may leave nest after a few days, but remain in vicinity. Age at first flight about 30-40 days.
Both parents feed young. Downy young may leave nest after a few days, but remain in vicinity. Age at first flight about 30-40 days.
Omnivorous. Diet includes a wide variety of fish, insects, mollusks, crustaceans, marine worms, small birds, nestlings, eggs, rodents; also eats berries, seeds, seaweed. Also scavenges refuse around garbage dumps.
Not yet established as a nesting bird in North America, although single birds have paired up with Herring Gulls at a couple of colonies. Usually first breeds at age of 4 years. Nests in colonies. Nest site on ground, sometimes on cliff ledge or on roof of building. Nest (built by both sexes) a mound of grasses, seaweed, debris, with shallow depression at top lined with finer materials.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
Geoff LeBaron has led Audubon's Christmas Bird Count for the last 32 years, long before crowdsourcing scientific data was in fashion.
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