Ausnahme: Lachmöwen Vorarlberg

Gulls form a species-rich group within Laridae, currently treated as a subfamily of around 55 species. In the DACH region hunters regularly meet five of them: the small black-headed gull with its chocolate-brown hood in breeding plumage, the medium-sized common gull as the smallest member of the genus Larus, the abundant herring gull as the characteristic seabird of the North and Baltic coasts, the similar lesser black-backed gull with a dark to almost black mantle and yellow legs, and the powerful great black-backed gull, which ranks as the largest gull species in the world. Gulls are opportunistic omnivores feeding on fish, crustaceans, worms, insects, carrion, eggs and chicks of other birds, as well as human refuse.

Gulls were originally birds of the coast. Today, however, several species, above all the black-headed and common gull, increasingly breed inland at lakes, gravel pits, rivers, moorlands and on farmland. As cultural followers they also exploit landfills, harbours and fish-processing plants. Breeding usually takes place in colonies that range from a few pairs to several thousand. Large gulls such as the herring and great black-backed gull need up to four years to develop their full adult plumage, which makes the intermediate plumages demanding to identify.

All European gull species are covered by the EU Birds Directive and are specially protected under the Federal Nature Conservation Act. While the Federal Hunting Act formally lists several gull species as game, gull hunting in Germany is shaped by closed-season rules at state level and by nature-conservation requirements. For reliable identification three features carry most of the weight: size (black-headed clearly smaller than herring gull, great black-backed bulkier than the rest), mantle colour (pale grey in herring and common gull, dark grey to black in lesser black-backed and great black-backed), and the colour of legs and bill (yellow legs in lesser black-backed and common gull, flesh-pink in herring and great black-backed).