About Slender-Billed Gull:
- It is a medium-sized seabird
- Scientific Name: Chroicocephalus genei
- Distribution:
- It breeds very locally around the Mediterranean and the north of the western Indian Ocean (e.g. Pakistan) on islands and coastal lagoons.
- Most of the population is somewhat migratory, wintering further south to North Africa and India, and a few birds have wandered to Western Europe.
- In India, it is considered a regular along the western coast with several records from wetlands of northern India.
- Features:
- It is 37 to 40 cm long with a 90 to 102 cm wingspan.
- It has a pale grey body, a white head and breast, and black tips to the primary wing feathers.
- The head and dark red bill have an elongated tapering appearance, and this bird also appears long-necked.
- The legs are dark red, and the iris is yellow.
- About half of the slender-billed gull's food is fish. It flies a few metres above the surface of the water and dives into the water when it sees suitable prey.
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- Conservation Status:
- IUCN Red List: Least Concern
Pallikaranai Marshland:
- It is a freshwater marsh and partly saline wetland situated about 20 kilometres south of the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
- It serves as an aquatic buffer of the flood-prone Chennai and Chengalpattu
- It encompasses 65 wetlands through two outlets, viz., Okkiyam Madavu and the Kovalam Creek, and falls into the Bay of Bengal.
- On its eastern periphery, the marsh is flanked by the Buckingham Canal.
- Parts of the marsh are well below the mean sea level and qualify as low-lying basins.
- It is one of the Ramsar sites in India.
