Brooklyn Bird Watch: August 19
Ring-billed Gull. Scientific Name: Larus delawarensis
No matter where they are, Gulls and Terns can make a lot of noise. In today’s excellent Heather Wolf photo of a Ringed Bill Gull in Brooklyn Bridge Park, this Ringed Bill appears to be screaming about something.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology calls the Ring Billed Gull an “acrobat of the air” as they skillfully snatch tossed food scraps from the air while flying. “These birds are comfortable around humans and they frequent parking lots, garbage dumps, beaches, and fields, sometimes by the hundreds. A black band encircling the yellow bill helps distinguish the adult Ring Bills from other gulls.
If you’ve ever watched a golf tournament on TV and seen a cameraman capture on video a gull walk up to a golf ball which had just rolled to a stop, pick up the ball in its beak and fly off, then you have witnessed something is apparently part of this bird’s DNA.