Black-headed Gull attack

[kingrichard]

Does anyone have any thoughts on this behaviour?

We were watching from one of the hides on the lagoon on Brownsea Island this weekend and saw a very small Black-headed Gull chick (I'm no expert but it couldn't have been more than two weeks old) swimming on the edge of the water. It was near one adult bird that made a lot of noise and then flew off. The chick approached another adult which made lots of noise and the chick swam away from it. A third adult then swam after the chick and attacked it. It picked the chick up by its neck and pinned it to the water, before lifting it again and tossing it near the muddy water's edge. It did this once more before the chick disappeared into the reeds beneath us at the hide.

I know that some male birds will kill the offspring of another male if it's trying to mate with the female bird but there did not seem to be any parent birds about so this just seemed quite brutal.

[Hobjob]

I watched a black headed gull (BHG) steal another BHG's baby
a couple of weeks back. It was a chick less than a week old.

Parents flew into a rage, but after a couple of minutes gave up
as the little chicks legs stopped moving about.

Took about 5 minutes for the first BHG to swallow the chick though.









The chick is still going down the throat