### animal | vertebrate | bird | seabird:

Gull
* All gulls are seagulls
  - go through a sequence of plumages from juvenal to adult
* Most gulls belong to families
  - large families
* Most gulls feed on insects
  - small insects
* Most gulls have backs
  - noses
  - runny noses
  - live for years
  - nest on cliffs
  - reach maturity
  - return to colonies
* Some gulls are reputed to 'paddle' the earth with their feet to bring earthworms to the surface
  - cause damage
* Some gulls eat crabs
  - establish sites
  - feed on mollusks
* Some gulls have bags
  - black spots
  - edges
  - ranges
  - white tails
  - wide ranges
* Some gulls kill birds
* Some gulls nest in colonies
  - small colonies
* Some gulls select mates
  - same sex mates.
  * can eat most types of food but like meat more than anything else. They look around for discarded food and dead animals to eat as well as hunting and have learned how to live and breed in the same places as people. Most types of seagull are awake during the day and sleep at night. They like to sleep on water, like lakes or the sea when the water is calm
* actually do see in color.
* also have very large esophaguses.
* always become easier when the wings are open.
* are animals
  - attracted to water for a variety of reasons, depending on the size of the water body
  - birds that live near oceans and lakes
  - cacophonous and dirty
* are common at dumpsites, harbors, and piers and around fishing boats
  - year-round
* are fast moving birds that prey on piping plover eggs and chicks
  - on plover chicks and eggs
  - fish-eating birds that target schools of shad near the surface
  - larger and bulkier than terns, and their tails are squared rather than forked
  - located in sea
  - notorious troublemakers to photograph
  - numerous, always with the chance of seeing an unusual species
* are opportunistic feeders, exploiting virtually any food source they can find
  - including many different items the Aleutian Islands
  - predators of several seabirds during the breeding season
  - scavengers that are looking for an easy meal
  - terribly aggressive and greedy
* are the best known of all seabirds, though many spend much of their lives inland
  - main objects of ornithological studies
  - principal predators on the eggs and young of other species, including kittiwakes
  - usually too numerous and are very aggressive with birds of prey
  - valuable as scavengers
  - well-known scavengers
* can also cause swimmer's itch
  - change their migratory behavior during lifetime
* cause damage to agricultural crops and threaten human safety at and near airports.
* cry out overhead in perpetual anticipation.
* eat many different things
  - the eggs or take the young chicks
* fly in and get as close as they can, hoping to get a bit of something from the otter
  - out and crabs and other sea life are very plentiful
* generally are adaptable birds.
* get food.
* glide and hover over the ocean
  - lazily as if they have nowhere to go and nothing to do
  - more generalised bills that reflect their more opportunistic lifestyle
  - red spots on their beaks that the young peck at when they want to eat
* inadvertantly help protect eider nests.
  - cells
  - chest cavities
  - cytoplasm
  - flight feathers
  - second joints
  - skulls
  - vacuoles
  - wishbones
* like to float on the air currents so that they can exert as little energy as possible.
  - rocky cliffs
* often use updrafts of air to soar over large expanses of water.
* patrol the shore.
* perform acrobatics as they swoop low, dip slender wings in the air.
* recognize their own species by the type of ring around the eye.
* roost in abundance where the freshwater flows into the bay.
* soar and squeak.
* swoop and cry overhead while sandpipers play tag with the surf
  - down to take dead fish
* top the list as the bird most commonly struck by aircraft.
* wail their lament at the now decline of summer.
* wheel overhead.