The 11 rarest gulls in the UK.

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Here's the 11 rarest gull species we've seen in the UK. They get rarer towards the end. Let's start with the Mediterranean gull, a recent UK colonizer. Now onto the little gull, the world's smallest gull, most often seen during migration. Our next two used to be considered subspecies of herring gull. Firstly, the hard-to-ID Caspian gull, and next the yellow-legged gull.

[00:00:19]These now breed on the south coast. And now to some winter visiting white-winged gulls. The enormous glaucous gull, and its smaller relative, the Iceland gull.

[00:00:28]These birds come in a couple of varieties including the kumlieni subspecies. Now onto an Arctic [music] species, the Sabine's gull, possibly my favorite. American visitors now, the first of which is the Bonaparte's gull.

[00:00:40]Unlike most gulls, these nest [music] in trees. Here's the ring-billed gull, a regular but declining winter visitor.

[00:00:45]The super rare laughing gull, I saw this many years ago at New Brighton on the Wirral. And lastly, a highlight bird of this year, the Arctic breeding Ross's gull. Phew. I will be doing a long-form video on gulls soon, so watch out for that.