Skip to content
The UK Bird Atlas

Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks August · Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis)
Roger Culos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Yellow-legged Gull: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Yellow-legged Gull has been recorded in 761 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (26%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in August.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
15% or more of visits
High
3% to 15%
Moderate
<1% to 3%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 36%1%Low
February 32%<1%Very high
March 22%<1%Low
April 15%<1%Low
May 13%<1%Low
June 18%<1%Low
July 71%2%Very high
August 100%3%High
September 69%2%High
October 52%1%Very high
November 49%1%High
December 41%1%High

Squares with the highest reporting rate in August

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NS97Falkirk, Scotland100%Very high
NU13Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ20North Yorkshire, England100%Very high
NZ36South Tyneside, England100%Very high
NZ38Northumberland, England100%Very high
SD34Lancashire, England100%Very high
SD52Lancashire, England100%Very high
SE04Bradford, England100%Very high
SE93East Riding of Yorkshire, England100%Very high
SJ35Wrexham, Wales100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.