Why Gulls Are Eating Pizza and Hot Dogs Instead of Fish

Gulls are known for being sneaky birds that swoop in and grab entire meals out of people’s hands. Some see these birds as a nuisance, but it is because their natural food sources are on the decline that gulls have had to look elsewhere for food. With public spaces being rife with trash and uneaten food, these areas have become urban hunting grounds for gulls. What exactly are gulls eating, though? This is the question that Gulls Eating Stuff wants to answer. With the public’s help, gulls are being photographed as they both hunt animals and scavenge for human food to better understand how the available food today has affected gull populations and their overall health.

What Is the Gulls Eating Stuff Project?

As gulls have moved away from their traditional coastal homes into more urban areas, their diets have changed as well. What was once fish, crustaceans, lizards, and the occasional nut or berry has changed. The change has come because gulls are opportunistic feeders. With more human food being available than ever before, gulls gravitate toward it not only because they are hungry, but also because it is easy to come by.

With the population of many gull species declining, some so far as to be categorized as vulnerable or endangered on the IUCN Red List, the birds have had no choice but to come further inland for human food. The Gulls Eating Stuff project is expanding our understanding by collecting global, real-time observations from the public.

According to Gulls Eating Stuff, which was started in January 2025 by Alice Risely, ecologist at the University of Salford in England, gulls have undergone a massive “demographic shift.” To determine what the birds are eating as they move away from the coast and how this impacts their population numbers, the program has enlisted the public to snap photos of gulls in any and every environment they are found in while enjoying a meal.

“We want to know what gulls are eating and where! Across the world, gulls have been undergoing a huge demographic shift,” Gulls Eating Stuff explains on their website. “We want to know all the weird and wonderful things gulls eat in order to start collecting some data on gull diet – whilst also having a bit of fun!”

The website goes on to say, “Our goal is to get people noticing gulls whilst also contributing to our understanding of gull diet and behavior. We want to capture the huge diversity of gull diets and understand spatial and temporal trends in what they are eating.”

To date, over 250 members have sent in 356 photos from 343 unique locations around the globe. Photos that people would expect to see, such as gulls eating fast food, are part of the gallery. But, more unexpected photos, such as a gull eating a rabbit or even a starling, may be surprising to some. Anyone interested in participating is invited to do so. You only need to follow a few simple instructions to post a picture and help researchers better understand what gulls eat.

How to Get Involved with Gulls Eating Stuff

For those who have gulls in their area or are visiting where gulls live, participating in the project is straightforward. The main thing to remember is that pictures need to be of gulls eating and not anything else.

In order to post pictures to the Gulls Eating Stuff project, the following steps are required:

• Describe gulls in as much detail as possible. If the species is at least known, that is helpful, but not a requirement to post a picture.

• A clear view of the entire gull, head, wings, and legs is necessary to post a picture.

• Note the date the picture was taken.

• Note the location where the picture was taken.

• Gulls are NEVER to be fed to get a picture.

The pictures of the gulls can be from anywhere around the world. It does not matter if the image is similar to another in the gallery, either. The goal is to see what gulls eat and if there are any patterns to their feeding behavior, both in and out of nesting season.

Gull Populations Are On the Decline

There are over 50 species of gulls worldwide. Of those species, many are on the decline. Fortunately, for some, there may still be time to reverse the decrease in populations. But for species like the black-billed gull, which is considered endangered, and Olrog’s gull, lava gull, relict gull, and Saunders’ gull, which are classified as vulnerable, time is quickly running out to save the gulls. The reason that gull populations are shrinking annually has to do with several factors. Those factors include:

• Overfishing

• Climate change

• Habitat loss

• Avian flu outbreaks

• Competition with other bird species for food

• Birds of prey population recovery as birds target gulls

• Pollution

It may seem strange that gull populations are declining, given that they are seen in large numbers foraging in cities and towns, away from their traditional coastal homes. However, the reason gulls are now congregating in places where they would not have been seen 150 years ago is that they rely on human food more than ever, even watching people to determine what to eat and what to avoid.

Gulls Observe People to Understand Which Food to Eat

Gulls are not given enough credit for their intelligence and adaptability. Once people began trawling for fish, gulls quickly learned that by following the boats, they could easily grab prey. This established people as a source of food for gulls. Naturally, the birds followed people onshore from the ocean, and that is when their diets changed substantially.

What is interesting is that gulls do not rely on trial and error to determine if a food item is worth eating or not. According to a 2020 study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, gulls will watch what people put in their mouths. Gulls consider the food items that people put into their mouths as potential nutritional sources.

According to Madeleine Goumas, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall and lead author on the study, the ability to determine what constitutes easy food sources may have been the reason gulls took so easily to cities despite their once exclusive coastal habitat.

“Our study shows that cues from humans may play an important part in the way gulls find food, and could partly explain why gulls have been successful in colonizing urban areas,” Goumas explains to ScienceDaily.

As gulls have studied people and learned where food sources are, they have begun to replace the majority of their diet with human-made food, preferring it and the decreased effort it takes to get a meal.

Human Food Is Easier to Get

Animals recognize from an early age that it is more beneficial to go after food sources that are easier to hunt or are more abundant in an environment to ensure a proper meal is had. Whether or not gulls prefer the taste of human food to that of fish has yet to be explored. However, gulls do prefer human food to fish from an availability standpoint. This is why the majority of their diets are now based on human-produced food.

According to Kim Lato, ecologist and co-chair of the communications committee for the Pacific Seabird Group, hunting for fish in the ocean is a wait-and-see game for gulls. Gulls can count on when people will be eating in public, when trash day is, and locations where people throw bread and other bits of food to birds.

“Trash pick-up happens the same day every week and recess for kids is the same time every day,” Lato explains to Audubon. “Fish, on the other hand, are constantly moving.”

While human food is easier to get, it is not nearly as nutritious for the gulls as their traditional diet. Consequently, if this is the only food that is consumed, the chances of gulls having long-term health problems are high.

However, with how gulls have adapted to life in urban areas, getting them to turn their backs on the food people eat in favor of traditional food will be challenging. This is especially true given that overfishing and urban expansion have led to a decline in the gulls’ food sources and a decline in the overall gull population. Therefore, it is possible that shorelines once full of gulls could lose their populations as gulls move further inland in search of abundant food.

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