{"id":30369,"date":"2025-02-25T10:51:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T05:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=30369"},"modified":"2025-07-16T12:30:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T07:00:28","slug":"slender-billed-gull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/slender-billed-gull\/","title":{"rendered":"Slender-Billed Gull"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Slender-Billed Gull Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Birders in Chennai recently recorded a rare shorebird, the slender-billed gull, at the Pallikaranai marshland.<\/p>\n<h2>About Slender-Billed Gull<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>medium-sized seabird<\/strong> species.<\/li>\n<li>Scientific Name: Chroicocephalus genei<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Slender-Billed Gull Distribution<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It <strong>breeds <\/strong>very locally around the <strong>Mediterranean and <\/strong>the <strong>north of the western Indian Ocean <\/strong>(e.g. Pakistan) on <strong>islands and coastal lagoons<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Most of the population is somewhat <strong>migratory<\/strong>, wintering further south to north <strong>Africa and India<\/strong>, and a few birds have wandered to <strong>western Europe.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>In India<\/strong>, it is considered a regular along the <strong>western coast <\/strong>with several records from wetlands of northern India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Slender-Billed Gull Features<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is 37 to 40 cm long with a 90 to 102 cm wingspan.<\/li>\n<li>It has a <strong>pale grey body<\/strong>, a <strong>white head and breast, <\/strong>and black tips to the primary wing feathers.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The head and dark red bill have an elongated tapering appearance, and this bird also appears <strong>long-necked.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>legs are dark red<\/strong>, and the iris is yellow.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>About half <\/strong>of the slender-billed gull&#8217;s <strong>food is fish. I<\/strong>t flies a few metres above the surface of the water and dives into the water when it sees suitable prey.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Conservation Status:<\/strong> \u2018<strong>Least Concern\u2019 <\/strong>under the <strong>IUCN Red List.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Key Facts About Pallikaranai Marshland<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a f<strong>reshwater marsh<\/strong> and <strong>partly saline wetland <\/strong>situated about 20 kilometres south of the city of <strong>Chennai, Tamil Nadu.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It serves as an <strong>aquatic buffer of<\/strong> the <strong>flood-prone Chennai and Chengalpattu <\/strong>districts.<\/li>\n<li>It encompasses 65 wetlands through two outlets, viz., Okkiyam Madavu and the Kovalam Creek, and falls into the Bay of Bengal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>On its eastern periphery, <\/strong>the marsh is <strong>flanked by the Buckingham Canal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Parts of the marsh are well below the mean sea level and qualify as low-lying basins.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ramsar-sites-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Ramsar sites in India<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Slender-Billed Gull FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1<\/strong>. How do you identify a slender-billed gull?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans<\/strong>. It is a medium-sized gull with a long, slender bill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2<\/strong>. What do slender-billed gulls eat?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans<\/strong>. The diet of the species consists mainly of fish (50 % of the diet), as well as insects and marine invertebrates.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3<\/strong>. How big are slender-billed gulls?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans<\/strong>. It is 37 to 40 cm long with a 90 to 102 cm wingspan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/chennai\/spotted-rare-slender-billed-gull-at-pallikaranai-marsh\/articleshow\/118539458.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TOI<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Slender-Billed Gull is a medium-sized seabird with a distinctive long, slender bill, found in coastal regions of Europe, Asia, and North Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}