Seagulls make up the larid family.
The term seagull derives from gavia , whose etymological origin is found in the Latin language. A seagull is an animal that belongs to the group of birds .
This means that seagulls are vertebrates that breathe through lungs, have feathers that cover their body, have a horny orange beak and have one pair of wings and another pair of legs. In addition, their embryos grow inside eggs and their blood is kept at a stable temperature, as is the case with the rest of birds.
Characteristics of seagulls
The wingspan of the gull approaches one meter, with a length of about two feet if measured from the end of the tail to the beak. With dense and usually white plumage (although there are black and gray), it is a palmipedous species : its fingers are linked together by a membrane, which means it can swim easily.
Seagulls reside in coastal areas and are prepared to travel long distances. They build their nests with branches and leaves, forming colonies that gather a large number of specimens.
Coastal areas are the habitat of seagulls.
Your diet
Voracity is a distinctive trait of the seagull. Its main food is the fish it catches directly from the sea .
In any case, it also feeds on other marine animals, birds , eggs, rodents, insects , plants and even carrion. Thanks to this diverse diet, it has the ability to move away from the coast, as it can find sustenance in many places.
It is common for seagulls to accompany fishermen to collect discards and fish remains . Sometimes, these birds end up ingesting baited hooks or becoming entangled in fishing lines, suffering damage and injuries .
Seagull species
It should be noted that gulls are considered to constitute a family , giving rise to the group of gulls . This group includes several genera, the one called Larus being the most common.
The kelp gull or Dominican gull , scientific name Larus dominicanus , lives in the southern hemisphere. A peculiarity is that it feeds on live right whales .
On the Uruguayan, Brazilian and Argentine coasts, on the other hand, you can find the Olrog's gull or crab-eating gull ( Larus atlanticus ). Due to pollution and urban advance , this species is under threat.
As we indicated above, there are seagulls of other genres . We can refer to the pink gull ( Rhodostethia rosea ), the black-headed gull ( Chroicocephalus ridibundus ), the dwarf gull ( Hydrocoloeus minutus ), the gray gull ( Leucophaeus scoresbii ), the black-headed gull ( Ichthyaetus melanocephalus ), the kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ) and the earwig gull ( Creagrus furcatus ), among many others.
A city and an award
The city of Las Gaviotas is located in the province of Buenos Aires ( Argentina ). This small coastal town is part of the Villa Gesell district and, thanks to its beaches, is a popular tourist destination in the summer season.
Lastly, it is known as Gaviota , the prize received by those who win different instances of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival ( Chile ). You can differentiate between the Platinum Seagull , the Golden Seagull and the Silver Seagull .