[Animals] The low flight of the thousand seagulls of Barcelona

[MosterOfficial ☆]

 

Visiting the Barcelona cemeteries of Montjuïc and Poblenou in these weeks can be intimidating. Between May and June the seagulls are in the nesting process and the graveyards are one of the quiet places chosen by these birds, which as soon as they suspect that their young may be in danger, they do not hesitate to fly low to frighten people or animals and don't get too close. The municipal company Cemeteries of Barcelona is aware of this problem, but denies having made recommendations on how to protect oneself with umbrellas inside Barcelona cemeteries and, of course, they do not distribute any type of umbrella to protect themselves from the attack of these birds. The gulls attack will cease in a few weeks when their chicks are safe. According to Joan Navarro, one of the researchers at the Institute of Marine Sciences, however, the people of Barcelona are not in danger from the attitude of these birds.

 

The yellow-legged gull is a native species that lived on the coast and fed on fish. For a few years everything has changed. “It is a species that is not migratory and did not usually settle in cities, until the first nest in Barcelona was detected in 1978. It used to fish in the sea but it is an opportunistic animal that has learned to eat at landfills. Their diet is now based on hunting doves and Argentine parrots ”, Navarro highlights.

 

In Barcelona, the yellow-legged gull can be seen on the cliffs of Montjuïc and a significant part of the po[CENSORED]tion nests on the roofs and roofs of almost every neighborhood in the city with the exception of Pedralbes, La Trinitat and Torre Baró. There is no sign of the seagull either in Collserola or in the Tres Turons. Most of the nests located on the rooftops are usually solitary, but up to five have been found together on the same roof. “The po[CENSORED]tion that reproduces ranges between 200 and 250 breeding pairs. The total po[CENSORED]tion should be around 1,000 gulls. It is a po[CENSORED]tion that has been stable for years ”, the researcher maintains.

 

Intimidation

 

“It is not dangerous and with its low flights it is very difficult for them to harm a human being. The problem is that it is a bird that intimidates and that is the inconvenience with which the neighbors are, ”warns Navarro, who maintains that the yellow leg is a bird that has also spread to other cities. “They have no predator, but when they have no food they stop reproducing. It is not protected and at some point it could be classified as a plague in southern Europe ”, the researcher maintains. Joan Navarro maintains that the great novelty since 1978 in the attitude of yellow-legged birds is that they now base their diet on Argentine pigeons and parrots. "There are so many that it is very easy for them to capture them," sums up the researcher. Navarro believes that the confinement after the state of alarm was decreed has caused the people of Barcelona to pay more attention to the presence of these seagulls, which is the most majority species but not the only one. “In a part of the Free Zone there are also audoin gulls. That they are in danger precisely because of the yellow leg ”, he laments. “In winter there is a type of gull, the laughing one, which is migratory and comes from northern Europe. It is very curious because there is a ringed specimen that comes from Poland to Barcelona every year ”, he points out.

 

Animals