Seagull bird is one of the most common birds that live by the sea. The range of this bird is scattered all over the world, starting from the Arctic and ending with the Antarctic, but the least of them are in tropical countries. Many people wonder where the seagull hibernates. The answer is quite simple: this bird adapts very easily to any habitat, so wintering is not at all terrible for it.
The most interesting thing about seagulls
In Russia, you can find more than 20 species of birds that belong to the genus of gulls. Their range is quite wide: this includes the European part of the Russian Federation, most of the Far East and Siberia.
These birds are excellent flyers, able to stay in airspace for a long time, either speeding up, then slowing down their flight, making an abrupt stop, virtuoso turns, and a pique. In addition, they can quickly run, swim and even dive into the water.
Gulls nest on plains and rocks near water bodies. Some of them sail, but in most cases the gulls live in colonies. Such birds rarely change their nesting sites, except because of changes in climatic conditions.
Seagulls molt twice a year. This occurs in the autumn period - full molt, and also after the end of winter - incomplete.
Wintering gulls
Most gulls spend the winter in the Black or Caspian Seas, some fly to the North Sea or the Mediterranean, as well as to African countries, Japan, China. Many can be seen in the winter in populated cities, because there is an opportunity to get food for themselves. These birds are not afraid of people, they often beg for bread crumbs, and also find their food in landfills in the countryside.
Recently, gulls have become the main "garbage collectors" in the winter and serious competitors to ravens living in places of industrial and consumer waste.
There are more and more gulls in the industrial centers of Russia. They stay here to winter, easily adapt to urbanized territories, try to adapt to living conditions, altered by human influence.
Seagulls in the regions of Russia
Many are interested in where the seagulls winter in Magadan. Gulls in this area have not changed their habitats for a long time, nesting on the roofs of high-rise buildings. And since these birds are inextricably linked with the sea, they can often be found on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. Some representatives of these birds spend in the ice-free places of bodies of water in the Magadan Region all winter.
Volga gulls remaining for the winter are kept in small flocks. There are a lot of places where Volga gulls winter. They use non-freezing sections of the lower reaches of hydroelectric power stations, and runoff water from thermal stations. And in the winter, gulls are attracted to the Volga reservoir.
There are several species of gulls in the fauna of the Urals. Most often, birds of this order can be found in the tundra region. Where do gulls winter in the Urals? Along the Ob River and partially along the Irtysh River , such populations as the black-headed gull, small and blue-gray, are most common, and you can rarely find common laughter and tern (black, white-winged or small).
Seagull migration
Before the onset of frost, most gulls migrate south. Most of all gulls, klushi love to travel. They fly from Siberia and northern Europe to India and African countries. Tire-gulls are also indefatigable, flying for the winter from the tundra to the southern countries of Africa and America.
Overwinter these birds fly away with the onset of the first cold weather. There are a lot of warm places where the seagull hibernates. However, most birds settle in the south-west of Eurasia and the Pacific islands.
An interesting fact is that not all species of these birds fly south. For example, the pink gull, whose habitat is Greenland and Siberia, migrates in the cold season on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. It is there that there are many places that are not covered with ice crust, where the seagull hibernates, eating sea crustaceans and small fish.
The range of blue-headed gulls begins on the Kola Peninsula and reaches the western part of Chukotka, but from the southern side it reaches the Caspian Sea. Around November, this species of birds migrates to the Mediterranean, and some blue-headed gulls fly to the Persian (Arab) Gulf, which is located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
On the territory of Russia there are a lot of silver gulls, which are distinguished by large sizes and a huge yellow beak. This predator bird nests on the Russian coast of the Arctic, in Siberia and in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. For the winter, a silver gull migrates to the sea coasts of the south. In Russia, this is most often the coast of the Black or Azov Seas, and outside the country - the Mediterranean.
A small seagull with white plumage, which is called a white seagull, does not make flights with the onset of cold weather or travels short distances (their maximum length does not exceed a thousand kilometers).
Gull suburbs
Such birds like gulls are very different from other birds: they fly very well, rising high in the sky, swim in the water, quickly run, eat in the air, looking for life on the ground and in the water. They are near-water birds, but many nest on the roofs of houses, including in the Moscow region.
Most of all are gulls in Moscow . These large birds nest in places that are inaccessible to predators. Often these are quarry zones and lakes. The blue-headed gull lives on the Lublin fields and in some other points of the capital. And where the seagulls winter in Moscow, it’s on those sections of the city river that do not freeze in winter.
Such a population as the lake gull is found in almost all places of the city where there are water bodies. However, these birds nest most of all in the Lublin fields, as well as in the Mnevnikovsky floodplain, in the swamps in Dolgoprudny, in the Krylatsky quarry and along the Navershka River. In these places where the gulls of the Moscow Region winter, there are many non-freezing reservoirs. Several dozens of pairs of lake gulls spend the winter on urban rivers that are not covered by ice.
Common gull
The color of a river gull in winter resembles a sea pigeon. You can recognize gulls only by the fact that they have a slightly shorter neck and beak. In those places where river gulls winter, there must be non-freezing ponds.
Most often, the common gull for wintering nests on the coasts of the seas, in particular the Mediterranean, Caspian and, of course, the Black, as well as on the Pacific coast, in the Indian Ocean and on the islands of Japan. Recently, the range of the river gull in winter has been expanded. It can be found far from the Palearctic. In North America, river gull hibernates on the eastern coasts.
Thus, the wintering spots of the common (river) gull are the deltas of large rivers and the coast of the sea.
Krachki - relatives of gulls
Such a population of birds has a bright color. Krachka is much smaller and more elegant than a seagull. These birds live near ponds and on the coasts of the sea, but they winter on the shores of Antarctica. Terns fly to the place of wintering across the shores of Eurasia, the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, while doing routes of tens of thousands of kilometers.
The main places for wintering gulls in Russia
Since the beginning of the 80s of the last century, the number of gull birds wintering in cities has increased significantly. There is no constant record of the total number of birds and where the gulls winter, but members of environmental associations monitor bird nesting sites in winter. So, for example, bird lovers are sure that about 460 gulls winter in the capital, who are looking for a place near the Moscow River. According to the Ryazan Environmental Center, about 100 gulls nest along the Oka River in winter, and they can also be found near the CHP.
Land areas where the seagull hibernates are very habitable. The most favorable places for nesting gulls in the winter are the Sochi Black Sea coast, as well as the seashore in Tuapse and Gelendzhik. It is here that there is a lot of ice-free water area of the sea and a large number of river mouths with numerous tributaries, which also do not freeze.
Several dozens of gulls were also seen in the Volgograd region. Then they winter on the Kamyshinka river.
Observations of environmentalists confirm that every year seagulls are increasingly exploring new land areas near non-freezing ponds in winter. To date, the picture of the wintering of birds of the gull order in Russian cities is not entirely clear. All data is collected by bit by bit experts to create a complete picture of where gulls winter.