The seagulls are medium-large sized birds, with sizes ranging from 29 cm in length to 120 g in weight of the small gull, to 75 cm in length and 1.75âââ‰â¬Å2 kg in weight of the great mugnaiaccio. The beak is long and robust and the webbed paws.
The wings are usually white, gray or black and in the young also brown. Depending on the species, the young take two to four years before reaching the adult livery. In this phase both the colors of the feathers and those of the beak, the legs and the eyes change.
Some species change the color of the plumage according to the season, but there is no differentiation of plumage between the sexes.
A specimen of Larus occidentalis
Larus michahellis at the Vittoriano, Rome
Usually they live in colonies, nest along the coasts or in wet areas and inland waters. They feed on fish, eggs, small carrion, leftovers and also man-made waste, insects and worms.
Over the years many colonies of seagulls have moved to urban areas, even far from the coast, where they feed on food waste, hunt smaller birds, rats and in some cases even attack humans to get food
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