People who say “seagull,” we assure each other, are wrong. There’s no such thing as a seagull—the correct term is simply “gull," because gulls don't live exclusively near the sea.
Here, a gull shot yesterday in Northern France, rips the gills out from a freshly dead fish.
Here an except from Audubon - the USA equivalent of the Hong Kong bird watching society. https://www.audubon.org/news/seagull-or-gull-who-really-cares
Let’s call it “birdsplaining”—that urge to jump in like a walking Wikipedia entry as soon as we hear someone flub a bird name. the word “seagull” also seems to drive some birders up the wall. People who say “seagull,” we assure each other, are wrong. There’s no such thing as a seagull—the correct term is simply “gull," because gulls don't live exclusively near the sea. This is a hill many birders have chosen to die on. (There’s even a Twitter account!)
The excuse for such purism is that, for many birders, a correct ID is the whole point of the hobby. After all, standardized common names are immensely helpful in making sure that we’re all talking about the same bird; plenty of warblers are partially yellow, but there is only one Yellow Warbler. Indeed, North American birds have official, “correct” common names determined by the American Ornithological Society.
What do you think?
so who wants a stormy petrel on a stick?
Personally I am amazed that birders do not insist on using the Latin or scientific names for their birds, like the insect and reptile nerds do. So, yes, I learned something when I learned that there is no such a thing as a seagull.