American Herring Gull

About this species

This species has 6,901,998 occurrence records from 57 countries and territories (GBIF, 21 October 2026). Most records come from the United States (73.9%) and Canada (25.7%); together they account for 99.6% of the total. In the United States, this species accounts for 0.46% of all bird records in GBIF.

The scientific name Larus smithsonianus combines the genus name Larus with the species epithet smithsonianus. The Warbla app catalog lists 24 species of the genus Larus; apart from this one, those with the most GBIF records are Larus delawarensis, Larus fuscus and Larus argentatus.

The catalog has GBIF record counts for 101 species of the family Laridae. This species ranks 4th among them; the family’s most-recorded species is Larus delawarensis. Its record count is 7.9 times the family average (874,525). The family Laridae belongs to the order Charadriiformes, which has 340 species in the Warbla app catalog.

More birds in the family Laridae

• Ring-billed Gull
• Lesser black-backed gull
• European Herring Gull
• Great Black-backed Gull
• Common Gull

Credits & data sources

• Wikidata
• GBIF.org