Silver Gull

About the Silver Gull

The silver gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) is a gull in Oceania. It is the most common gull of Australia. It has been found throughout the continent, but particularly at or near coastal areas. It is smaller than the Pacific gull (Larus pacificus), which also lives in Australia.

The silver gull should not be confused with the herring gull, which is called "silver gull" in many other languages (scientific name Larus argentatus, German Silbermöwe, French Goéland argenté, Dutch zilvermeeuw), but is a much larger, robust gull with no overlap in range.

It has traditionally been placed in the genus Larus, as is the case with many gulls, but is now placed in the genus Chroicocephalus. Hartlaub's gull (C. hartlaubii) of South Africa was formerly sometimes considered to be subspecies of the silver gull.

There are three subspecies: C. n. forsteri (Mathews, 1912) – north and northeast Australia, New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands C. n. novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826) – southern Australia and Tasmania C. n. scopulinus (Forster, JR, 1844) or red-billed gull – New Zealand

The head, body, and tail of an adult silver gull are white, and the wings are... Wikipedia →