Where does the seagull winter? Interesting facts about gulls

The gull bird is one of the most common birds living near the sea. The range of this bird is scattered in all corners of the world, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, but least of all in tropical countries. Many are wondering about where the seagull is hibernating. The answer is quite simple: this bird very easily adapts to any habitat, so wintering for it is not at all terrible.

The most interesting thing about gulls

On the territory of Russia, you can meet more than 20 species of birds that belong to the genus of seagulls. Their area is wide enough: this includes the European part of Russia, a large part of the Far East and Siberia.

These birds are excellent flyers, able to stay for a long time in the airspace, then speeding up, then slowing down their flight, to make a sharp stop, masterful turns, pique. In addition, they can quickly run, swim and even dive into the water.

Nesting on the plains and rocks near the reservoirs. Some of them are fished, but in most cases gulls live in colonies. Nesting places such birds are rarely changed, except that due to changes in climatic conditions.

Twice a year the gulls molt. This occurs in the autumn period - complete molting, and also after the end of winter - incomplete.

Wintering seagulls

Most of the seagulls spend the winter on 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 winter in crowded cities, because there is an opportunity to get their own food. These birds are not afraid of people, they often beg for bread crumbs, and also find their own food in garbage dumps outside the city.

Recently gulls have become the main "scavengers" in the winter and serious competitors to crows living in industrial and consumer waste sites.

Gulls in the industrial centers of Russia are becoming more and more. They remain here for the winter, adapt easily to the urbanized areas, try to adapt to the habitat conditions, the changed human influence.

Seagulls in the regions of Russia

Many are wondering where the seagulls hibernate in Magadan. Seagulls in this area have not changed their habitats for a long time, nestling 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 the reservoirs of the Magadan region throughout the winter.

Volga gulls, remaining for the winter, keep small flocks. Places where winter seagulls are Volga, a lot. They use the nonfreezing sections of the lower reaches of the hydroelectric power stations, the drains of the waters of the thermal stations. And in the winter of seagulls attracts the Volga Reservoir.

In the fauna of the Urals there are several species of gulls. Most birds of this order can be found in the area of the tundra. Where do seagulls hibernate in the Urals? Along the Ob River and partly along the Irtysh River , such populations as the black-headed gull, the small and the gray-haired, are more common, and commoner and common tern (black, white-winged or small) can be more rarely found.

Migration of seagulls

Before the onset of frost, most gulls migrate to the south. Most of all among the gulls love to travel klushi. They fly from Siberia and the north of Europe to India and African countries. Tidal fore-tailed gulls are also indefatigable, flying to wintering from the tundra to the southern countries of Africa and America.

Wintering these birds fly away with the onset of the first cold weather. There are many warm places where the seagull hibernates. However, most birds live in the south-west of Eurasia and the Pacific islands.

Interesting is the fact that not all species of these birds fly to the south. For example, the gull is pink, the habitat of which is Greenland and Siberia, migrates in the cold season to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. It is there that there are many places that are not covered by ice, where the seagull hibernates, eating sea crustaceans and small fish.

The area of the seagull begins on the Kola Peninsula and reaches the western part of Chukotka, but on the southern side it reaches the Caspian Sea. Approximately in November this species of birds migrates to the Mediterranean, and some blue gulls manage to fly to the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, which is located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.

On the territory of Russia there are many silver gulls, which are distinguished by their large size and huge beak of yellow color. Nests of this predator bird on the Russian coast of the Arctic, in Siberia and in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. For the winter hatching, the silver gull migrates to the sea coasts of the south. On the territory of Russia, it is more often the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov, and outside the country - the Mediterranean.

A small seagull with white plumage, which is called - the white gull, with the onset of cold weather either does not fly, or overcomes small distances (the maximum length of them does not exceed a thousand kilometers).

Seagull suburbs

Such birds as seagulls are very different from other birds: fly perfectly, climb high into the sky, swim in the water, run fast, eat in airspace, look for life on land and in water. They are waterbirds, but many nest on the roofs of houses, including in the Moscow region.

Most of all gulls are gray in Moscow . These large birds nest in places that are inaccessible to predators. Often these are career zones and lakes. The seagull is found in Lublin fields and in some other places of the capital. And where the seagulls spend their winter in Moscow, it's on those parts of the city river that do not freeze in winter.

Such a population, like a lake gull, is found practically in all places of the city where there are reservoirs. However, these birds nest most in the Lublin fields, as well as in the Mnevnikovskaya floodplain, in the swamps in Dolgoprudny, in the Krylatskoe quarry and along the Nivershka River. In these places, where the gulls of the Moscow suburbs are wintering, there are many ice-free water bodies. Several dozen pairs of lake gulls spend the winter on city rivers that are not covered by ice.

Seagull

The color of a river gull in winter is like a sea pigeon. You can learn the gulls only by the fact that they have a little shorter neck and beak. In those places where river gulls winter, there must necessarily be non-freezing water bodies.

Most common seagull for wintering nests on the coasts of the seas, in particular the Mediterranean, Caspian and, undoubtedly, Black, as well as on the Pacific coasts, in the Indian Ocean and the islands of Japan. Recently, the range of the river gull in the winter has been extended. It can be found far from the Palearctic. In North America the seagull river wintering on the eastern coast.

Thus, the places of wintering of the ordinary (river) seagull are the deltas of large rivers and sea shores.

Terns are relatives of seagulls

Such a population of birds has a bright color. The tern is much smaller and more elegant than a seagull. These birds live near water bodies and on the coasts of the sea, but they winter over the coast of Antarctica. To the place of wintering terns fly across the coasts of Eurasia, the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, while doing routes to 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 birds of the gulls, hibernating in the cities, has increased significantly. The constant account of how many birds there are and where the gulls hibernate, no, but members of environmental associations are monitoring the nesting places of birds in the winter. So, for example, bird lovers are sure that about 460 seagulls wintering in the capital, who are looking for a place near the Moskva River. According to the Ryazan Ecological Center, along the Oka River in winter about 100 seagulls nest, and also they can be found near the thermal power station.

Sites of land, where the seagulls hibernate, are very habitable. The most favorable places for nesting gulls in 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 dozen seagulls were sighted in the Volgograd Region. Then they spend the winter on the river Kamyshinka.

Observations of ecologists confirm that seagulls more and more develop new areas of land around unfrozen water bodies every winter. To date, the picture of wintering birds of the gulls in the Russian cities is not entirely clear. All the data is collected by specialists in bitterness to create a complete picture of where the seagulls hibernate.