Ring-billed Gull

How to find it

Start at Puntarenas, where local birders go to look for rare gulls. The meeting of currents off the lighthouse point brings many seabirds, gulls and terns, and birders scan the sea from the point and the docks. A first-year Ring-billed Gull proved hard to see there, and the writer guessed it spent much of its time at fish factories, where scraps are an easy meal. Check any dock with a Herring Gull on it, since the two were often together. Look through every gull carefully for the black bill ring.

How to recognise it

Adults have a white head and underparts, a silver-gray back and wings, and black wingtips with white spots. The legs are yellow or greenish-yellow and the eyes are pale.

The yellow bill carries a neat black ring near the tip, which gives the bird its name.

Winter adults have a streaked head and neck. Young birds are paler and grayer than young Herring or California Gulls. A first-winter bird has a pink bill with a black tip and dark scaling on the breast and belly. Full adult plumage comes only in the third winter, so many birds will not yet look like the picture in the field guide.

What it sounds like

Recording: Richard Littauer, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is an opportunistic feeder that eats almost anything it finds, including insects, fish, grain, eggs, earthworms and rodents. It is a sociable bird that often gathers in large flocks. Outside the breeding season it is often found at ports, rubbish dumps and sewage works, and it sometimes follows fishing boats. The Puntarenas bird was very tame.

Where it lives

Across its range it breeds around lakes and rivers, and many birds move to salt water in winter. It winters on coasts, rivers and lakes. In Costa Rica the records come from the coast: the port of Puntarenas on the Gulf of Nicoya, and Tortuguero on the Caribbean side. A regional reference says the species winters south to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

Similar birds

Herring Gull is larger and has a thicker bill without a clearly defined black ring. California Gull is also larger, with a longer bill that is often four-colored, dark eyes, and legs that look greyer or greener. In a mixed flock the Ring-billed stands out from the Laughing Gull and Heermann's-type gulls because it is larger and paler.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Besides the official name Gaviota Piquianillada, Costa Rican name lists include Gaviota de Delaware and Gaviota pico anillado.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list gives it the status M, migrant, and does not mark it as a resident or an endemic, while the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

The Puntarenas bird was found by a local guide and was very tame. It often sat on the same dock as a Herring Gull, so a dock with gulls on it is a good place to set up.