Yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis or L. cachinnans) is a large, slender gull. Adults have snow-white head, neck, chest, flanks, belly and tail. Their back and wings are ash-gray, wing tips are black with white spots at the edge. It has dirty yellow legs and a dark yellow bill with a light red spot at the tip, by which it is recognized by nestlings in the nest. The iris is yellow, and the eye is surrounded by a thin red line. Its length ranges from 55 to 67 cm, and its wingspan measures from 140 to 160 cm.
The yellow-legged gull is active during the day. It is a social bird that, both during the breeding season and after breeding, lives in smaller or larger flocks. The yellow-legged gull is omnivorous, known for its adaptability. At sea it accompanies fishing boats and picks up scraps from the water surface; in settlements it is a regular guest at dumpsites, where it cleans up everything edible; in areas more distant from human settlements it preys on eggs, nestlings and small mammals and reptiles, hunts crabs, insects and looks for carrion, for example fish or mollusks, and everything else that the sea washes up on the shore.
It nests colonially, near the water. It builds a nest from various materials on the ground, on the banks of rivers and lakes surrounded by reed beds or grasses, but also on the seashore or cliffs. In Slovenia it nests in April and May, regularly only along the coast, though some nesting in Ljubljana has also been confirmed. In our country it can be observed all year round, as it stops here during migration, and it also winters regularly.
