Birds of Central Oklahoma

All birds Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers

Ring-billed Gull, adult
Adult Photo by Rhododendrites. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ring-billed Gull

Larus delawarensis

Here September to March.

Recorded by Richard E. Webster. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, via xeno-canto, trimmed and volume evened out.

Look for

  1. A white and gray gull with a yellow bill. The bill has a black ring around it, and that's how it got its name.
  2. Black wingtips with white spots on them.
  3. Yellow legs and pale eyes.

A little about it

Ring-billed Gulls are winter birds here. Look for them from September to March. November has the most, and by summer almost all of them are gone.

In much of North America, it's the most common gull away from the ocean. It has learned to live near people. Flocks rest in parking lots and grab scraps at fast-food places.

This gull will eat almost anything. Bugs, fish, worms, grain, rodents like mice, and trash are all food to it. It may even steal food from other birds.

Ring-billed Gulls nest in big groups on the ground near water, and a group can have more than 10,000 birds. The nest is a shallow cup of grass and twigs. The chicks can fly about 5 weeks after they hatch.

Fun fact

Sometimes 2 female gulls pair up and share 1 nest. That's why a few nests have more than 4 eggs in them.

When it's here

Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in November.

How big

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17 to 21 inches, with wings about 4 feet across. About as big as a crow, with long, pointed wings.

Where to look

Lakes and the open land near them. Gulls also hunt for food in farm fields that were just plowed.

  • On or by water
  • Fields and roadsides
  • Flying overhead

People have spotted it at Oklahoma City Zoo area, Lake Hefner, Lake Overholser.

Could it be something else?

  • Young Ring-billed Gull

    Young gulls have a pink bill with a black tip. It takes until their 3rd winter for them to look like grown-ups.

  • American Herring Gull

    A bigger gull with pink legs. Its yellow bill has a red spot. In winter, some Herring Gulls get a dark ring on the bill too, so check the legs.

Where these facts come from