What Is a Group of Gulls Called?
Squawking over a dropped sandwich or nesting by the thousand on a sea cliff, gulls have picked up a few different names for their gatherings.
A group of gulls is most commonly called a colony, the term used for the dense breeding and roosting groups gulls form on cliffs, islands, beaches, and rooftops. Pack and screech also turn up in collective-noun lists, but colony is by far the most widely used term and the one that best matches how gulls, part of the family Laridae, actually gather.
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What Is a Group of Gulls Called?
Colony is the term most closely tied to how gulls actually live: most species nest in large, dense, noisy groups on cliffs, islands, beaches, and increasingly on flat urban rooftops, sometimes numbering in the thousands of breeding pairs. Pack and screech also appear in collective-noun references, with screech nodding to the sharp, raucous calls gulls make while defending a nest site or squabbling over food. None of the alternates carry the recognition or accuracy of colony, which is also the term ornithologists reach for when describing gull breeding sites.
Where Did the Name Come From?
Gulls are common, familiar coastal birds, but their collective nouns lean more modern and descriptive than mysterious. Unlike some of the whimsical medieval terms of venery recorded in the Book of Saint Albans (1486), colony is a straightforward biological term applied to any species that breeds or roosts in a tightly packed group, and it stuck to gulls simply because it describes them so well. Screech is even more informal, growing out of plain observation of the noise a crowd of gulls makes rather than any old hunting tradition.
Gull Facts
- Diet: Gulls are opportunistic scavengers, feeding on fish, insects, and just about anything humans leave behind at beaches, landfills, parking lots, and fishing boats.
- Colonial nesting: Most gull species breed in large, dense colonies on cliffs, islands, and beaches, sometimes packing thousands of nests into a single site for shared protection from predators.
- Intelligence: Gulls are quick problem-solvers, known for dropping shellfish onto rocks to crack them open and stamping their feet on the ground to mimic rain and lure earthworms to the surface.
- Urban adaptability: Many gull species have moved well inland and into cities, nesting on flat rooftops and following food waste far from any coastline.
- Lifespan: Gulls typically live 10 to 15 years in the wild, though some banded herring gulls have been recorded living past 30.
Example Sentences
- A colony of gulls wheeled and screamed above the trawler as the crew hauled in the day’s catch.
- Tourists scattered as a pack of gulls dove for an unattended bag of fries on the boardwalk.
Other Names for a Group of Gulls
Colony is the term most tied to how and where gulls actually gather, especially at nesting sites, and it’s the one you’ll see most consistently across bird guides and reference lists. Pack and screech are documented alternates, with screech specifically evoking the noise of a crowded feeding or nesting site, though neither is used with anything close to colony’s frequency.
🧠 Test Your Gull Knowledge
Three quick questions. See what stuck.
1. What’s the most common term for a group of gulls?
2. Where do most gull colonies nest?
3. How do gulls crack open shellfish?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a group of gulls called?
Most commonly, a colony, the term for the dense breeding and roosting groups gulls form on cliffs, islands, beaches, and rooftops. Pack and screech are also documented but far less common.
Why do gulls nest in colonies?
Nesting in large colonies gives gulls shared protection from predators through group vigilance and mobbing behavior, along with easy access to nearby feeding grounds.
Why is a group of gulls sometimes called a screech?
The name reflects the loud, raucous calls gulls make, especially the alarm and long calls used to communicate within a colony or warn off intruders.
How smart are gulls?
Gulls are considered highly intelligent, known for problem-solving behaviors like dropping shellfish onto rocks to break them open and stamping the ground to lure earthworms to the surface.
Do gulls only live near the ocean?
No, many gull species have adapted to inland and urban environments, nesting on rooftops and foraging at landfills and parking lots far from the coast.
Keep an Eye on the Skies…
Whether it’s a colony crowding a cliffside or a pack circling the boardwalk for fries, gulls have earned their reputation as some of the boldest, most adaptable birds around, and colony remains the name that best captures how they actually live.