Slender-billed Gulls
The Slender-billed Gull is a mid-sized gull which is most easily identified by its distinctive profile with a long, sloping forehead and a long, slightly drooping beak after which it is named. It is slightly larger than the Black-headed Gull which it resembles although it does not have a black hood in summer. The head, neck, rump and tail are white while the back and the upper surfaces of the wings are grey with a white leading edge to the wings and black tips to the outer primary feathers. The underparts are white, sometimes with a rosy tinge. It has long, blackish-red legs, a dark red beak and yellowish-white eyes with a red eye ring.
The Slender-billed Gull breeds at widely scattered, isolated locations from Senegal and Mauritania in Africa and the south and east of the Iberian Peninsula, through the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Middle East and into Asia as far as Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north west India. Only some populations migrate and some also winter at the Caspian and Black Seas and around the Mediterranean. The Slender-billed Gull is sometimes recorded outside of its normal range, for example in other parts of Europe.
The Slender-billed Gull breeds in colonies and like most gulls it is gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts. It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.
The Slender-billed Gull breeds on the coast as well as on inland seas, steppe lakes and on beaches, islands and sand-spits in shallow, tidal water. It also uses meadows, grasslands and freshwater or brackish marshes near river deltas during the breeding season. In winter, it is almost always found on the coast, generally using shallow, inshore waters and salt pans.
Date: 2nd May 2012
Location: Salinas de Bonanza near Jerez de la Frontera, Andalucia, Spain
The Slender-billed Gull breeds at widely scattered, isolated locations from Senegal and Mauritania in Africa and the south and east of the Iberian Peninsula, through the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Middle East and into Asia as far as Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north west India. Only some populations migrate and some also winter at the Caspian and Black Seas and around the Mediterranean. The Slender-billed Gull is sometimes recorded outside of its normal range, for example in other parts of Europe.
The Slender-billed Gull breeds in colonies and like most gulls it is gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts. It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.
The Slender-billed Gull breeds on the coast as well as on inland seas, steppe lakes and on beaches, islands and sand-spits in shallow, tidal water. It also uses meadows, grasslands and freshwater or brackish marshes near river deltas during the breeding season. In winter, it is almost always found on the coast, generally using shallow, inshore waters and salt pans.
Date: 2nd May 2012
Location: Salinas de Bonanza near Jerez de la Frontera, Andalucia, Spain
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Also in: South and west Spain - April and May 2012
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