Laughing Gulls from across the pond – by Linda Oswald, Florida USA
I live in the US (Florida) and came across your website when I was searching for information about seagull behavior. I saw the most amazing thing yesterday. We have a pond in our neighborhood where there are many Laughing Gulls. I was feeding them bread so that I could get them close enough to photograph. There was one pair that I was watching because one of them had an injured leg. They were both adults. One of them ate a piece of bread. The other one was acting like a hungry chick who wanted something to eat. But is wasn’t a chick. The unhurt bird who had eaten the bread regurgitated the bread and actually fed it to the other adult bird. Have you ever seen anything like that? I am thinking that maybe they are a pair and one takes care of the other? If you are interested I can send a photo. I love watching and photographing all birds. Their behavior is fascinating!
by jenny steer
I think that paired-up gulls sometimes feed each other like that.
Thank you Linda for your post. It is great to have some connection with someone in America! Please could you send any photo’s you have for us to see. I have never seen a Laughing Gull!
Yes Phil, one adult feeds another at the beginning of the breeding season the female will beg food from the male in the same manner that the young do. It is all part of the courtship process. If you like you could be our Gull correspondent from Florida Linda it would be great to get pictures and positive stories from the USA!
Laughing Gulls are fairly similar in both size and appearance to Black-headed Gulls – but it’s darker. I’ve never seen one in real life myself. I gather that they’re very noisy too.