Seagulls hunting small birds?

texas star

Hi question for experts I've noticed a decline of sparrows and little birds in my garden and out and about.Ive seen seagulls attack and eat a starlings.Just wondering is this what's happening seagulls are preying on smaller birds?Or can someone tell me the stats of small birds in Ireland from now and say 10 years ago or maybe I'm just not seeing them often anymore.Thanks

bkrangle

I don't know about gulls eating smaller birds but you can get an idea of garden bird numbers over the past few years from the results of the Birdwatch Ireland surveys

https://birdwatchireland.ie/our-work/surveys-research/research-surveys/irish-garden-bird-survey/

OpenYourEyes

At national level most of our common songbird species have been stable - i.e. not much change except short term declines after harsh winters etc. Two exceptions are Goldfinch (increasing a lot) and Greenfinch (decreasing). With regard House Sparrows I suspect it's a local habitat issue at play as they don't move far - so possible they lost a nest site near you,not maybe just had a poor breeding season (numbers way down at my parents house this winter).

Nothing at all to do with gulls though. Most of those birds move too fast and are too agile for a gull to even bother going after them, and gulls aren't nest predators of songbirds either. If you saw one take a Starling, it was just being opportunistic rather than it being common behaviour/prey for them.

texas star

Thank you I enjoy watching the birds.It wasnt pleasant seeing the seagull attacking the starling.I though it seemed strange but then seagulls are scavengers up for eating anything.My mind went into overdrive.I forward the survey on to my father who also has a keen interest in garden birds.

magicbastarder

a chap i know used to work beside stephens green and was chatting to the park rangers in there a few years back, asked was the seeming falloff in ducklings due to the pike he'd seen in the pond. the rangers said no, they reckoned it was seagull predation.

Del.Monte

I seem to remember a story on here some years back about gulls taking an entire family of mallard ducklings on Ireland's Eye as soon as they took to the water. The fact is that gulls are scavengers and will avail of any easy meal but cats, pesticides etc. are more of a threat to small garden birds.

OpenYourEyes

magicbastarder wrote: »

a chap i know used to work beside stephens green and was chatting to the park rangers in there a few years back, asked was the seeming falloff in ducklings due to the pike he'd seen in the pond. the rangers said no, they reckoned it was seagull predation.

Herons and Gulls are definitely the main predators of ducklings in urban ponds alright. Unfortunately those urban ponds represent very poor habitat to try and raise ducklings compared to a natural habitat, which most people don't realise. Some people do raise it as a reason there should be a gull cull (usually people with faux concern for ducklings when actually they dont like the noise of the gulls...), but if ducklings are the main concern then they can easily be raised in captivity and released when they're old enough to look after themselves!

cd07

I once saw a black backed gull swallow a rock dove whole whilst fishing around lambay island. Incredible what they can get down their necks!

Scotty #

I've witnessed them in Dublin zoo take several chicks and ducklings from the pond.

This one is on another level....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPTBhmcyXY

Muppet Man

Scotty # wrote: »

I've witnessed them in Dublin zoo take several chicks and ducklings from the pond.

This one is on another level....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPTBhmcyXY

Scotty - saw this with my own eyes at the trevi fountain in Rome. A seagull attacked and killed a pigeon in front of hundreds of tourists. Lots of tourists tried to stop the attack, but the seagull was out of reach and unrelenting at the base of the fountain. Poor pigeon had a terrible death and it was all over in about 10 seconds. What was left of his carcass floated out into the shallow waters of the fountain. Utterly bizarre sight.

Scotty #

From pigeon eating seagulls to sand martin eating grebes. Apparently this particular bird has been doing this for the last few years.

https://twitter.com/Michael04166819/status/1259398412367278080

quazzy

I've recently started following Nature is Metal on twitter and the 2 seagull related tweets were interesting.

Gull vs Pigeon
https://twitter.com/NaturelsMetal/status/1258087289860681731

Gull vs Baby Rabbit
https://twitter.com/NaturelsMetal/status/1259146598489247745

Scotty #

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

Herons and Gulls are definitely the main predators of ducklings in urban ponds alright. Unfortunately those urban ponds represent very poor habitat to try and raise ducklings compared to a natural habitat, which most people don't realise.

I once visited Dublin Zoo and spent most of the day watching the gulls take the ducklings and moorhen chicks from the pond one by one. Easy picking for them.

This has been posted here before but while we're on the subject of unusual predation, a great tit that thinks it's a sparrowhawk...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGpqOGWpK3E

bob mcbob

Muppet Man wrote: »

Scotty - saw this with my own eyes at the trevi fountain in Rome. A seagull attacked and killed a pigeon in front of hundreds of tourists. Lots of tourists tried to stop the attack, but the seagull was out of reach and unrelenting at the base of the fountain. Poor pigeon had a terrible death and it was all over in about 10 seconds. What was left of his carcass floated out into the shallow waters of the fountain. Utterly bizarre sight.

I live in Edinburgh and also saw a gull take a pigeon. The pigeon was perched on the tram line, the gull swooped down and hit it hard so it fell to the ground. Before it could move the gull was on it ripping it apart.

SlowBlowin

Most predators adapt to whats plentiful in their surroundings, but I have also witnessed them develop a "taste" for a particular species. Years back I was working with a well known BBC naturalist placing cameras on urban peregrine sites for a TV show. On one site, on top of a hospital in central London, the peregrines had developed a taste for Kingfishers, there were many skulls around the ledge. If they we not eating Kingfishers, then it was ring necked parakeets, very little else. It seemed this pair were only interested in colourful birds.

iHungry

Saw a seagull eating a pigeon in Barcelona a few years ago.

Del.Monte

Del.Monte wrote: »

I seem to remember a story on here some years back about gulls taking an entire family of mallard ducklings on Ireland's Eye as soon as they took to the water. The fact is that gulls are scavengers and will avail of any easy meal but cats, pesticides etc. are more of a threat to small garden birds.

Sean Walsh park in Tallaght used to have many ducks, and every spring many ducklings. Now it has some ducks, and no ducklings this year that I see.

It has about 40 grey herons, however!