western gull behaviour (1 Viewer)

I have been watching these gulls a lot recently because i am on the west coast vactioning in monterey & sf bay area

just the other day i was watching the cormorants on bird rock monterey and i saw all these western gulls flying around the rock, they would land in the cormorant flock then take flight again they seemed obessed with the rock full of cormorants does anyone here know the relationship between these 2 bird species???

western gulls seem to be the largest most agressive gulls here, me and my friend were sitting out on the rocks and a pair was mobbing us, dive bombing us for no reason, they would get so close it was insane! I could not see any nests near by they seemed to be doing it for the hell of it!

scuba0095 said:

I have been watching these gulls a lot recently because i am on the west coast vactioning in monterey & sf bay area

just the other day i was watching the cormorants on bird rock monterey and i saw all these western gulls flying around the rock, they would land in the cormorant flock then take flight again they seemed obessed with the rock full of cormorants does anyone here know the relationship between these 2 bird species???

western gulls seem to be the largest most agressive gulls here, me and my friend were sitting out on the rocks and a pair was mobbing us, dive bombing us for no reason, they would get so close it was insane! I could not see any nests near by they seemed to be doing it for the hell of it!

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Ahh yes, someone else has finally experienced Western Gulls the way I have for the last two decades.

Western Gulls are now setting up their breeding territories. Like all gulls they are strongly territorial. However Western Gulls seem particularly intolerant of just about all other living things too near to them when they start building their nest.

In the Monterey area, these gulls have moved most of their breeding activity onto the local rooftops. Western Gulls actually seem to prefer rooftops to natural sites. Two things could be going on with those Cormorants; 1. it could be the same thing they're doing to you or, 2. they could be trying to steal eggs if their are any. They often work in teams; one or two birds will distract while others move in for the snatch.


They may not have yet build their nest but are most likely in the process of it and your presence is not welcome even near the future nest site. A pari of Western Gulls attacked and killed a crow the other day at Sea World for landing on their rooftop in the park. The crow did not get out of the way in time. Remember that video posted a while back, this species does not even fear corvids.

In my opinion you are looking at rather typical Western Gull behavior. I'm sure they have a reason for mobbing you (although you could be right). Great Black-Backed Gulls may be known for their aggression but they use their size to bully smaller species. Western Gulls are much bolder and have no qualms attacking birds larger than themselves. They even mug people at Seaworld for their food, by dive bombing them from behind and snatching it right out of their hands!

Keep watching them, you'll find their behavior quite fascinating.

while i was eating at a ocean side outdoor patio a huge western gull landed right by where the chefs were cooking it spread its weings and started screaming at them like it was trying to challenge them only a few feet away! THe chefs knew exactly whatt to do they got some squirt bottles and squirtted the gull till it left, ive never seen such boldess from ANY wild bird period

while sitting at a padio one came right beside me it was a younger gull and was only a few inches away the only thing that seperated us was the plastic/glass divider, it reminded me of a dog begging for food

One thing i notice is they tend to just snap at cormorants for no reason? do they chase other birds down and steal their fish?

scuba0095 said:

while i was eating at a ocean side outdoor patio a huge western gull landed right by where the chefs were cooking it spread its weings and started screaming at them like it was trying to challenge them only a few feet away! THe chefs knew exactly whatt to do they got some squirt bottles and squirtted the gull till it left, ive never seen such boldess from ANY wild bird period

while sitting at a padio one came right beside me it was a younger gull and was only a few inches away the only thing that seperated us was the plastic/glass divider, it reminded me of a dog begging for food

One thing i notice is they tend to just snap at cormorants for no reason? do they chase other birds down and steal their fish?

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Ohhhh yes! All the time. I see them harrass Ospreys that are carrying fish. They will steal fish right out of the bills of Brown Pelicans.

At one of our feeder pools at Seaworld, there was once a Western Gull that would grab Heermann's Gulls until they regurgitated a fish.

Now that chef story is crazy! Even I haven't yet see them be that bold. Close but that's just crazy. Birds in that part of California tend to be a little larger than in San Diego so I can see how that could be possible. It's funny I first read this thread before I went to work today so I had it fresh in my mind as I watched the local birds in the park. I don't know if you remember the thread I posted here some time back where I spoke of the gang of Western Gulls relentlessly chasing down Heermann's Gulls. Turns out, there were injured Heermann's Gulls showing up around the park that were victims of Western Gulls attacks. This was before the breeding season even started as well.

Going back to your chef story, I've seen them do similar things to small children. If they didn't dive on them for their food; what they would sometimes do is calmly walk up to a child carrying, lets say a personal Pizza. The gull would simply fly up quickly about two feet off the ground and land again. This they learned would scare the living hell out of a child and they'd drop the food and run like hell.

Then there are the gulls that inspect strollers that are parked for any food left in them. I could go on forever about these birds and what I've seen them do.

they seemed like they were comming so close to our heads when they were dive bombing us

I wonder just how agressive they would get if they actually had nests? It was. The display they were putting on was pretty scary

THey start out with an extremly sTEEP dive and then hover right over our heads

they kept doing it until we left the rock

It sounds like they may already have nests in that area. That's behavior I'm used to seeing from birds actually defending something. Rocks would seem an uncommon spot for them to nest on. Westerns prefer flat surfaces, sloped at best to build nests. You may have also noticed how vocal this species tends to be?