Southern Black-backed Gull (Karoro)

Robust, intelligent, opportunistic and aggressive, the black-backed gull is the only large gull in New Zealand. Although one of the most common and conspicuous birds of our coasts, according to Oliver, it does not appear to have been listed as a New Zealand bird until Gray, in Dieffenbach's Travels in New Zealand in 1843, included it. The Erebus and Terror expedition collected it in the Auckland Islands in 1840 and also recorded it from Mount Egmont.