Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Laridae > Larus > Larus marinus

Larus marinus (Great Black-backed Gull)

Synonyms: Larus naevius
Language: French

Wikipedia Abstract

The great black-backed gull (Larus marinus), also known as the greater black-backed gull or, informally, as the black-back, is the largest member of the gull family. It breeds on the European and North American coasts and islands of the North Atlantic and is fairly sedentary, though some black-backs move farther south or inland to large lakes or reservoirs. The adult great black-backed gull has a white head, neck and underparts, dark grey wings and back, pink legs and yellow bill.
View Wikipedia Record: Larus marinus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
0
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
0
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 1.20809
EDGE Score: 0.79213
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  3.655 lbs (1.658 kg)
Birth Weight [3]  85 grams
Female Weight [6]  3.28 lbs (1.488 kg)
Male Weight [6]  4.032 lbs (1.829 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [6]  22.9 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Beaches and estuaries, Wetlands
Wintering Geography [2]  Eastern U.S./Canada
Wintering Habitat [2]  Beaches and estuaries, Coastal marine, Freshwater lakes and rivers
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Frugivore, Granivore
Diet - Endothermic [4]  20 %
Diet - Fruit [4]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  20 %
Diet - Scavenger [4]  20 %
Diet - Seeds [4]  20 %
Forages - Ground [4]  80 %
Forages - Water Surface [4]  20 %
Clutch Size [3]  3
Clutches / Year [7]  1
Fledging [5]  53 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  600,000
Incubation [3]  27 days
Mating System [9]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [3]  27 years
Migration [8]  Intracontinental
Speed [10]  30.646 MPH (13.7 m/s)
Wing Span [10]  5.478 feet (1.67 m)
Female Maturity [3]  5 years
Male Maturity [3]  5 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

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Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey No
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Cryptocotyle lingua[11]
Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle)[11]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 6Belopol'skii L.O. 1957. Ecology of sea colony birds of the Barents Sea. Izdat. Akad. Nauk SSSR. Moscow-Leningrad.
♦ 7British Trust for Ornithology
♦ 8Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 9Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 10Alerstam T, Rosén M, Bäckman J, Ericson PGP, Hellgren O (2007) Flight Speeds among Bird Species: Allometric and Phylogenetic Effects. PLoS Biol 5(8): e197. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050197
♦ 11Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 12Feeding Spectrum and Trophic Relationships of Short-finned Squid (Illex illecebrosus) in the Northwest Atlantic, Yu. M. Froerman, NAFO Sci. Coun. Studies, 7: 67-75 (1984)
♦ 13The role of capelin (Mallotus villosus) in the foodweb of the Barents Sea, A. V. Dolgov, ICES Journal of Marine Science, 59: 1034–1045. 2002
♦ 14Changes in the diet of Great Black-backed Gulls Larus marinus on Skomer Island 1958- 1992, Jim Poole, SEABIRD 17; 50-55
♦ 15Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0