American Herring Gull

How to find it

Start on the coast and check every gull, not only the common ones. Docks are worth a look, since the Puntarenas bird often perched on the cruise ship dock. Estuaries on the southern Caribbean coast are another place a young bird has been found. Scan for a big gull with pink legs and a pale-based bill. Costa Rica's regular gulls are Laughing and Franklin's, so a large one stands out. Storm weather offshore may be worth noting, and quiet stretches of coast and shrimp ponds are rarely checked.

How to recognise it

This is a large, heavy gull, about 53 to 66 cm long, with a wingspan of 120 to 155 cm. Males are clearly bigger than females.

Breeding adults: white head and body, pale gray back and wings, black wingtips with white spots, pink legs, and a yellow bill with a red spot.

Winter adults: head and neck streaked with brown, bill and legs duller. Winter plumage is described for September to March.

First-winter birds: dull grayish brown with a black bill, which develops a paler base by late fall. Birds become progressively paler over the next few years and usually reach adult plumage in their fourth cycle. Young birds are the ones recorded in Costa Rica.

What it sounds like

Recording: Eric Schmidt, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This gull lives in many habitats and eats a wide range of foods, including fish and invertebrates. It usually nests near water.

In Costa Rica the records are of first-year birds that stayed put for a while. One at Puntarenas stayed for weeks and often perched on the cruise ship dock. Another was seen at an estuary and then moved farther south along the same coast.

Where it lives

Across its range the species uses many habitats. Its winter range runs along the Pacific coast to Nayarit in Mexico, around the Gulf of Mexico, and inland to Honduras. It is rarer farther south.

In Costa Rica the records come from both coasts: the Pacific at Puntarenas, and the southern Caribbean coast south of Limón, down to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca.

When to see it

A Herring Gull turned up on the southern Caribbean coast in October, when offshore storms were churning the sea, and a local blog thought they probably brought it in. The Puntarenas bird was present around early March.

Similar birds

A big pink-legged gull with a pale-based bill in Costa Rica is more likely a rare Herring Gull or a Ring-billed Gull than a Laughing or Franklin's Gull. The Herring is larger than a Ring-billed but smaller than a Great Black-backed Gull, with a heavy body, thick neck and strong bill. Until 2024 it was treated as a subspecies of the Herring Gull, and it is now split from European Herring Gull, Vega Gull and Mongolian Gull. First-winter birds differ from European Herring Gulls by a browner, more uniform underside, a mostly black tail and a densely barred rump. Many have a pink bill with a black tip.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as M, a migrant, and local birders treat it as a rare visitor or vagrant.

Photography tips

At Puntarenas the Herring Gull gave better looks than a Heermann's Gull that stayed far out, because it often perched on the dock. A dock is a good place to try for a clear view.