No such thing as a Seagull!

As many of my birdwatching friends including in my local RSPB Group would say, There’s no such thing as a Seagull! Gulls yes! WinkWinkWinkWinkWink

  • I know a lot about Seagulls so I already knew that the ones you are most likely to find at the beach are Herring gulls and black backed gulls black headed gulls are land gulls rather than proper seagulls. But I think the no such thing ad a seagull thing is funny
  • Black headed gulls aren’t listed on there. Only the ones seen most often at sea. but even though the black headed gulls tend to prefer land that doesn’t mean they won’t be found at the sea. I saw 1 black headed gulls on the beach in Wales a few years ago when I went to Wales. And have a photo and film of the black headed gull. There was only one. The rest of the seagulls were herring gulls or black backed gulls.
    The herring gulls and black backed gulls aren’t only found at sea either. But tend to bee spotted at the beach more.

    I think the pages intention is to say just cause it’s called seagull doesn’t mean it’s only found at the sea even though there normally noticed more at sea. But I think the website thing and is there such thing as a seagull is funny.
  • www.tynekittiwakes.org.uk
    Tyne Kittiwakes-An inland colony- upon the River Tyne!
  • https://youtu.be/eD-zdFaDVJg
    Breeding Kittiwakes on the Tyne-Natural History Society of Northumbria.. Normally these weekly talks take place in Newcastle Upon Tyne, of which members attend weekly during the Autumn-Winter period. But since the Covid Pandemic all of the talks have been via Zoom. Members of the public can attend for a small admission fee. Members admitted free!

  • Zo Clark said:
    Black headed gulls aren’t listed on there. Only the ones seen most often at sea. but even though the black headed gulls tend to prefer land that doesn’t mean they won’t be found at the sea. I saw 1 black headed gulls on the beach in Wales a few years ago when I went to Wales. And have a photo and film of the black headed gull. There was only one. The rest of the seagulls were herring gulls or black backed gulls.
    The herring gulls and black backed gulls aren’t only found at sea either. But tend to bee spotted at the beach more.

    I think the pages intention is to say just cause it’s called seagull doesn’t mean it’s only found at the sea even though there normally noticed more at sea. But I think the website thing and is there such thing as a seagull is funny.

    I think you miss point - the point of the page is surely to say that we should not use the term "seagull" as they don't exist- it's either a Gull or a specific type of Gull eg a Black Headed Gull.

  • Sorry I didn’t realise how it sounded. What I meant was that just cause people call a gull a seagull doesnt nesacerely mean it is only found at the beach. When people use the term seagull it gives the impression you can only see them at the beach. But there’s actually differant types of gulls Not all of them are only found at the beach. Some are more inclined towards the sea but that doesn’t mean there only found at sea. they can also be found inland. I only saw one black headed gull at the beach in Wales all the rest were herring gulls and black backed gulls.


    It wasn’t in the water it was flying past abouve the sand on the beach. And it picked up on the other gulls getting very exited so it

    joined in for abit and then left. The black headed gull was just passing through when it couldn’t help but notice all the exitememt over people feeding bread so made a pit stop before moveing on. Black headed gulls tend to be more inclined towards land .

    That doesn’t necacerily mean you won’t see any at the beech at all. It doesnt  mean you won’t see them in water. This black headed gull had a completely black head.  I went around June or  July that year a few years ago. 


    Cause seagull doesn’t mean there only found at sea some of the gulls you see around can in fact be Herring gulls and black backed gulls sometimes. Most people think there all the same and dont know there’s differant types of gulls so People don’t take much notice of them  unless there at the beach so don’t realise they aren’t actually sea gulls and that there gulls rather.

    One day I pointed a black backed gull out to someone I know when I was out and about and they said they all look the same to me I didn’t know there was differant types of gulls. I always learn something from you when Im out. 

    they don’t know there’s differant types of gulls cause there used to seeing them and there used to seeing them at sea so automatically know them as seagulls. So are used to calling them seagulls cause of that.


    I usually call them gulls rather than seagulls so I already knew they arnt actually seagulls even though a lot of people call them seagulls. The website is trying to say because there’s differant types of gulls not all gulls live at sea so arnt  really sea gulls they are actually gulls.  That’s why  gull is the proper   term 

  • According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, "seagull" is "a popular term for a gull". So the word exists and I don't have a problem with it. Not everyone needs to get technical about it.

  • Thats correct. But I didn’t mean to sound like I was saying weather everyone is to get technical about the term. What I actually meant was most people are used saying seagull so dont know what the website said about the term. All I meant is it does tend to give the impression that the ones people see most frequently which are the 3 it mentioned only live by the sea even even though that’s not the case.

    What the website is trying to say is that not all gulls are only found at sea cause the differant types of seagulls and Some are also found inland so thats why the website said it’s a gull not a (sea) gull. I was also mainly trying to point out that it didn’t include black headed gull in there when in fact that is a gull that can be found inland aswell as the other gulls.