Ring-billed Gull

About the Ring-billed Gull

The Ring-billed Gull is the standard mid-sized gull of inland Texas - white-headed and white-bodied with a pale gray back, yellow legs, and a yellow bill wrapped in a neat black ring. Young birds are mottled brown and take three years to reach adult plumage.

It is a supreme generalist, equally at home following a plow for earthworms, dip-catching shad on a reservoir, or working a fast-food parking lot. Ring-bills are strong, buoyant fliers that will hover into a headwind and snatch food in midair, and they roost at night in large rafts on open water.

Ring-billed Gulls breed on northern prairie lakes and flood into Texas for the winter, abundant from October through April on reservoirs, landfills, beaches, and city lots - usually the most numerous gull anywhere away from the coast.