Great black-backed gull

Great black-backed gull

Larus marinus

ITIS Species Code: 176815 NatureServ Element Code: ABNNM03210

Taxa:

Order:

Family:

Aves

Charadriiformes

Laridae

NatureServe Global Rank:

NatureServe State (NC) Rank:

S3B,S5N

Federal Status:

NC State Status:

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PARTNERS IN FLIGHT PRIORITY SCORES:

Southern Blue Ridge:

n/a

Southern Piedmont:

n/a

South Atl. Coastal Plain:

n/a

HEXAGONAL KNOWN RANGE:

PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:

SUMMARY OF STATEWIDE PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:

Land Unit

US Fish & Wildlife Service

US Forest Service

US National Park Service

US Department of Defense

NC State Parks

NC University System

NC Wildlife Res. Com.

NC Forest Service

NC Div. of Coastal Mgmt.

Local Governments

Non-Governmental Org.

Other Public Lands

Private Lands

GAP Status 1-2

All Protected Lands

Statewide

Hectares

14,156.28

0.00

3,603.33

10,204.47

59.22

26.19

3,690.81

0.00

624.06

3.87

1,068.39

35.19

118,643.49

24,833.43

33,490.17

152,115.30

Acres

34,980.92

0.00

8,904.02

25,215.79

146.34

64.72

9,120.19

0.00

1,542.09

9.56

2,640.05

86.96

293,174.39

61,364.73

82,756.00

375,885.02

% of Dist. on

Prot. Lands

42.3 %

0.0 %

10.8 %

30.5 %

0.2 %

< 0.1 %

11.0 %

0.0 %

1.9 %

3.2 %

0.1 %

< 0.1 %

74.2 %

-----

% of Dist. on

All Lands

9.3 %

0.0 %

2.4 %

6.7 %

< 0.1 %

2.4 %

0.0 %

0.4 %

< 0.1 %

0.7 %

< 0.1 %

78.0 %

16.3 %

-----

HABITAT DESCRIPTION:

NATURE SERVE GLOBAL HABITAT COMMENTS:
ALL SEASONS: Primarily seacoasts, less commonly on large inland bodies of water (AOU 1983).

BREEDING: Nests on ground or on rocks on rocky coasts and islands, occasionally on inland lakes. Along western North Atlantic coast, typically nests on small low islands, either rocky, grassy, or sandy with relatively little tall vegetation. On large islands, may nest on rocky peninsula, among boulders, or in low vegetation back from shore. Uses dredge-spoil islands. Usually nested under IVA FRUTESCENS in New Jersey salt marshes. Will nest with other gulls and cormorants (Spendelow and Patton 1988).

MODELING DESCRIPTION:

Occupied Landcover Map Units:

Code	Name	Description	NC Natural Heritage Program Equivalent
378	Ocean Beaches	Open beach sand.	Upper Beach
3	Tidal Marsh	Fresh and brackish tidal marshes, including cord grass, wild rice, sawgrass and needlerush alliances.	Brackish Marsh, Interdune pond, Maritime wet grassland
124	Maritime Scrubs and Tidal Shrublands	Coastal shrubs including wax-myrtle, swamp rose, alder, yaupon, and greenbriar.	Maritime Shrubs, Salt Shrub
375	Hypersaline coastal salt flats	Tidal flats within salt marshes, including saltmeadow cordgrass or sea-purslane dominated alliances.	Salt Marsh
372	Interdune Herbaceous Wetlands	Dune swales with permanently flooded to intermittently exposed hydrology. Species composition depends on salinity and can include cut grass, spike-rush, mosquito fern, and hornwort.	Interdune Pond, Maritime Wet Grasslands
371	Maritime Grasslands	Dune grass community consisting of sea oats and beach grasses.	Dune grass, Maritime dry grassland
380	Coastal Plain Fresh Water Emergent	Emergent vegetation in fresh water seepage bogs, ponds and riverbeds of the coastal plain. Includes alliances dominated by sedges, eelgrass, as well as cane found in unforested cane-brakes.	Small Depression Pond, Sandhill Seep, Floodplain Pool, Unforested Floodplain Canebrake, Riverscour Prairies, Vernal Pools
180	Agricultural Crop Fields	Farm fields used for row crops.	No equivalent
205	Agricultural Pasture/Hay and Natural Herbaceous	Farm fields used for pasture grass or hay production, as well as old fields dominated by native and exotic grasses.	No equivalent
202	Residential Urban	Includes vegetation interspersed in residential areas. Includes lawns, mixed species woodlots, and horticultural shrubs. Vegetation accounts for between 20 - 70% of the cover.	No equivalent
203	Urban Low-Intensity Developed	Highly developed areas with vegetation accounting for < 20% of the cover.	No equivalent
8	Open water	Open water without aquatic vegetation.	No equivalent

View Entire Landcover Legend

Additional Spatial Constraints:

Exclude all area outside of known range.

Exclude all land greater than 200 meters from an open water feature.

CITATIONS:

Bent, A.C. 1921. Life histories of North American gulls and terns. U.S. Natl. Mux. Bull. 113. Washington, D.C.

Griffin, C. R., and E. M. Hoopes. 1992. Birds and the potential for bird strikes at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Final report, National Park Service, Boston, Massachusetts. 102 pp.

Hyslop, C., and J. Kennedy, editors. 1992. Bird trends:a report on results of national ornithological surveys in Canada. Number 2, Autumn 1992. Migratory Birds Conservation Division, Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, Ontario. 20 pp.

Brown, R. G. B., and D. N. Nettleship. 1984. The seabirds of northeastern North America:their present status and conservation requirements. Pages 85-100 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Pub. No. 2.

Buckley, P. A., and F. G. Buckley. 1984. Seabirds of the north and middle Atlantic coast of the United States:their status and conservation. Pages 101-133 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Pub. No. 2.

Clapp, R. B., and P. A. Buckley. 1984. Status and conservation of seabirds in the southeastern United States. Pages 135-155 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Pub. No. 2.

Evans, P. G. H. 1984. Status and conservation of seabirds in northwest Europe (excluding Norways and the USSR). Pages 293-321 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Pub. No. 2.

Golovkin, A. N. 1984. Seabirds nesting in the USSR:the status and protection of populations. Pages 473-486 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Pub. No. 2.

Harrison, C. 1978. A field guide to the nests, eggs and nestlings of North American birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.

Terres, J.K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), Committee on Classification and Nomenclature. 1983. Check-list of North American Birds. Sixth Edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas.

Spendelow, J.A., and S.R. Patton. 1988. National atlas of coastal waterbird colonies in the contiguous United States:1976-1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 88(5). x + 326 pp.

Chapdelaine, G., and P. Brousseau. 1992. Distribution, abundance, and changes of seabird populations of the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec, 1979-1989. Can. field-Nat. 106:427-434.

Snell, R.R. 1991a. Interspecific allozyme differentiation among North Atlantic white-headed larid gulls. Auk 108:319-328.

10 March 2005

This data was compiled and/or developed by the North Carolina GAP Analysis Project.

For more information please contact them at:
NC-GAP Analysis Project
Dept. of Zoology, NCSU
Campus Box 7617
Raleigh, NC 27695-7617
(919) 513-2853
www.basic.ncsu.edu/ncgap