page_title: American herring gull
section_title: Feeding
hierarchical_section_title: American herring gull / Behavior / Feeding
caption_attribution_description: English: Birds of Core Banks, North Carolina: Herring Gull (Larus smithsonianus) caught a crab
context_page_description: The American herring gull or Smithsonian gull is a large gull that breeds in North America, where it is treated by the American Ornithologists' Union as a subspecies of herring gull.
  Adults are white with gray back and wings, black wingtips with white spots, and pink legs. Immature birds are gray-brown and are darker and more uniform than European herring gulls, with a darker tail.
  It occurs in a variety of habitats including coasts, lakes, rivers and garbage dumps. Its broad diet includes invertebrates, fish, and many other items. It usually nests near water, laying around three eggs in a scrape on the ground.
context_section_description: It has a varied diet, including marine invertebrates such as mussels, crabs, sea urchins, and squid; fish such as capelin, alewife, and smelt; insects; and other birds including their chicks and eggs. It often feeds on carrion and human refuse. Food is plucked from the surface of the shore or sea or is caught by dipping underwater or by shallow plunge-diving. They also feed on clams and mussels by dropping them from a height on hard surfaces such as roads or rocks to break their shells. There is some question about whether this behavior is learned or innate, although it seems to be learned.
caption: Herring gull eating a crab
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