Ring-billed Gull, first-winter
Larus delawarensis
Ring-billed Gull · Prospect Park · 1 March 2026
A first-winter Ring-billed Gull mid-stride on the ice of Prospect Park Lake in March, in the mottled brown-and-grey plumage of a bird hatched the previous summer on the Great Lakes. Ring-bills winter on the city's lakes and car parks in hundreds.
The tail band - a solid dark bar across an otherwise pale tail - is one of the more reliable marks for ageing a young gull at a glance, along with the pink bill with its black tip. It takes three years to reach the clean grey-and-white of an adult, and the ring around the bill that gives the species its name comes with it.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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