📸 PhotoPhoto: lonelyshrimp · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Saunders's Gull
Saundersilarus saundersi (Saunders's Gull · ズグロカモメ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its body length of about 32 cm is similar to two smartphones (about 15 cm each) placed end to end (Comparison).
- 💡 Its body length of about 32 cm is slightly longer than the long side of an A4 sheet of paper (29.7 cm) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
Saunders's Gull is a small gull that breeds mainly in coastal salt marshes along the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea in China and winters from Korea and southern Japan to Vietnam. It is listed as Vulnerable (VU) by the IUCN.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It is small at 29–32 cm in body length, with a short, pointed black bill and reddish-orange legs. In the breeding season, its head and nape are black with white crescent markings around the eyes.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It flies over mudflats and drops down to catch polychaete worms and small crabs. There are at least 14,400 mature individuals worldwide, and numbers are declining due to land reclamation and development.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership notes that this bird breeds rarely on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society records that it also winters in Korea.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List VU (2018) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694436
- • IUCN Red List category VU — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 22694436
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000528810 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000528810
- • wikidata.org — Q22062067
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Saunders's Gull, Shuangtai Estuary, Panjin, Liaoning 1.
- • eaaflyway.org — saunderss-gull
- • avifauna.hkbws.org.hk — 016400
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Sue Cantan (photograph) and T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · CC BY 4.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Creagrus furcatus)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.