Pacific gull

Larus pacificus Latham, 1801

The Pacific gull (Larus pacificus) is a species in the family Laridae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 1.08 kg to 1.55 kg and live up to 14.5 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the Pacific gull

Weight: 1.08 kg – 1.55 kgsrc for Weight
Length: Not recorded
Wingspan: 1.37 m – 1.57 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan: 14.5 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet: Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food: Not recorded
Habitat: coastalsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch: 2.2src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle: Generalistsrc for Lifestyle
Migration: Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record: 1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the Pacific gull?

At 1.57 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the Pacific gull is close to the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the Pacific gull live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The Pacific gull is listed for 1 country.

Listed
Not listed

small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the Pacific gull?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The Pacific gull (Larus pacificus) is a gull, native to the coasts of Australia. It is moderately common in a band along the coast between Carnarvon, Western Australia, in the west, and Sydney in the east, as well as Tasmania and other islands off the continent's southern coast. It has, however, become scarce in some parts of the south-east, as a result of competition from the kelp gull.
Much larger than the ubiquitous silver gull, and much less common, Pacific gulls are usually seen alone or in pairs, loafing around the shoreline, steadily patrolling high above the edge of the water, or sometimes flying high on the breeze to drop a shellfish or sea urchin onto rocks.

From the Wikipedia article “Pacific gull” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pacific_gull&oldid=1337638403), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the Pacific gull endangered?

The Pacific gull is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

LCLeast Concern
NTNear Threatened
VUVulnerable
ENEndangered
CRCritically Endangered
EWExtinct in the Wild
EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the Pacific gull classified?

kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
classAves
orderCharadriiformes
familyLaridae
genusLarus
SpeciesLarus pacificus Latham, 1801

Synonyms Gabianus pacificus, Gabianus pacificus kingi

Other names and names in other languages (40)

DjugadyaEnglish
نورس باسيفيكيArabic
Дебелоклюна чайкаBulgarian
gavinot australiàCatalan
Gavinot occidentalCatalan
racek velkozobýCzech
Gwylan y Môr TawelWelsh
Tyknæbbet MågeDanish
DickschnabelmöweGerman
pacifika mevoEsperanto
Gaviota de TasmaniaSpanish
Gaviota del PacíficoSpanish
keiserkajakasEstonian
کاکایی اقیانوس آرامPersian
keisarilokkiFinnish
Goéland australFrench
Faoileán an Aigéin ChiúinIrish
שחף פסיפיHebrew
krupnokljuni galebCroatian
bukó sirályHungarian
Gabbiano del PacificoItalian
ハシブトカモメJapanese
Ramiojo vandenyno kirasLithuanian
Burung Camar PasifikMalay
Tónteel tsídii ntsaaígííNavajo
diksnavelmeeuwDutch
tykknebbmåkeNorwegian
mewa grubodziobaPolish
gaivota-australianaPortuguese
gaivotão-australianoPortuguese
Большеклювая чайкаRussian
čajka veľkozobáSlovak
Pacifički galebSerbian
grovnäbbad trutSwedish
பசிபிக் கடற்பறவைTamil
Pasifik MartısıTurkish
мартин товстодзьобийUkrainian
Mòng biển Thái Bình DươngVietnamese
太平洋鷗Chinese
太平洋鸥Chinese

Catalogue of Life Wikipedia iNaturalist Wikidata WoRMS IUCN Red List

Relatives of the Pacific gull

Other species in the same genus Larus.

European herring gull

Larus argentatus

Laridae

Common gull

Larus canus

Laridae

Lesser black-backed gull

Larus fuscus

Laridae

Great black-backed gull

Larus marinus

Laridae

Caspian gull

Larus cachinnans

Laridae

Glaucous gull

Larus hyperboreus

Laridae

ComparePacific gull vs European herring gull Pacific gull vs Common gull Pacific gull vs Lesser black-backed gull Pacific gull vs Great black-backed gull

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the Pacific gull?

An adult Pacific gull weighs 1.08 kg – 1.55 kg and has a wingspan of 1.37 m – 1.57 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the Pacific gull live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the Pacific gull for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the Pacific gull endangered?

The Pacific gull is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

How long does the Pacific gull live?

The Pacific gull has a recorded lifespan of 14.5 years.

What kind of animal is the Pacific gull?

The Pacific gull (Larus pacificus) belongs to the family Laridae in the order Charadriiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Pacific gull (Larus pacificus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/pacific-gull

MLA

“Pacific gull (Larus pacificus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/pacific-gull.

BibTeX

@misc{pacific_gull_2026,
  title = {Pacific gull (Larus pacificus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/pacific-gull},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}