Ring-billed Gull
(Larus delawarensis)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

The Ring-billed Gull breeds across much of Canada and the northern United States. Its breeding range continues to expand into northern Canada. The Breeding Bird Survey suggests that the species has exhibited a large increase in abundance in Canada since about 1970. Because it frequently overlaps with areas of intensive development, the species is exposed to a variety of anthropogenic threats.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

This species frequently feeds in garbage dumps, where entanglement and ingestion of plastics can be problematic. Where abundant populations of Ring-billed Gull have caused conflicts with humans, management to control the species has occurred (Morris et al. 2011). Accounts from the 1960s and 1970s documented potentially harmful burdens of organochlorine contaminants (e.g., Sileo et al. 1977, Gilbertson and Reynolds 1974). Although levels of some contaminants have since declined (Ryckman et al. 2005), others remain at potentially harmful levels in gulls of the Great Lakes.

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Gilbertson, M. and L. Reynolds. 1974. A summary of DDE and PCB determinations in Canadian birds, 1962 to 1972. Canadian Wildlife Service Occasional Paper 19:1-18.
• Morris, R.D., D.V. Weseloh, L.R. Wires, C. Pekarik, F.J. Cuthbert and D.J. Moore. 2011. Population trends of Ring-billed Gulls breeding on the North American Great Lakes, 1976 to 2009. Waterbirds 34:202-212.
• Pollet, I.L., D. Shutler, J. Chardine and J. P. Ryder. 2012. Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. In press. Pollet, I.L., D. Shutler, J. Chardine and J. P. Ryder. 2012. Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. In press. (Link)
• Ryckman, D.P., D.V.C. Weseloh and C.A. Bishop. 2005. Contaminants in Herring Gull eggs from the Great Lakes: 25 years of monitoring levels and effects. Great Lakes Fact Sheet. Canadian Wildlife Service, Ontario Region. Ryckman, D.P., D.V.C. Weseloh and C.A. Bishop. 2005. Contaminants in Herring Gull eggs from the Great Lakes: 25 years of monitoring levels and effects. Great Lakes Fact Sheet. Canadian Wildlife Service, Ontario Region. (Link)
• Sileo, L., L. Karstad, R. Frank, M.V.H. Holdrinet, E. Addison and H.E. Braun. 1977. Organochlorine poisoning of Ring-billed Gulls in southern Ontario. Journal of Wildlife Disease 13:313-322.
• Sirois, J., M.A. Fournier and M.F. Kay. 1995. The colonial waterbirds of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories: an annotated atlas. Canadian Wildlife Service Occasional Paper Number 89, Yellowknife, NT. 59 pp.