Seagulls

 

This is how I imagined seagulls to live ... however, to my surprise, in the dead of a Canadian winter, thousands of miles away from the ocean, I saw seagulls scavenging for food - and that sight stayed with me to this very day

Though originally coastal birds, seagulls eat almost anything: garbage, insects, rodents, food scraps, small animals, crops—you name it. This flexibility makes it easy for them to thrive in urban areas, far from the coast.

Sadly, climate change and overfishing may reduce coastal food supplies, pushing them to explore further inland. The good news is that their digestive systems can handle spoiled or dirty food that would make other animals sick.

In some inland places, they’ve become dominant scavengers, replacing animals like vultures and crows in certain roles. They're not afraid of humans and know how to steal food or raid bins with precision.

Seagulls are very smart birds:

• They learn quickly where food can be found (e.g., landfills, urban areas).
• They can mimic behaviours, solve simple problems, and pass knowledge through their flocks.
• Some have even been seen using tools (like dropping shellfish on rocks to crack them open).
• Seagulls have adapted incredibly well to cities and towns: They nest on rooftops, which mimic sea cliffs, and they use wind currents between buildings like sea breezes.