On Saturday, 24 January 2026, Vitalii Kazannyk reported: “Today, near Natalka Park, there was a Great Black-backed Gull among a flock of gulls.”
Since this is far from the first record of the Great Black-backed Gull in Kyiv, the website has accumulated some information about the places where it has been observed. To review all these locations, we go to territory analytics, place a marker approximately in the center of Kyiv, and choose a circle radius that covers the entire city. Then we set the date range from 1 December to 29 February and look at the result. In the table of species, we find the Great Black-backed Gull and tick the box next to it. At the bottom of the page, we click Submit — and get the result: a map of observations of the selected species within the specified circle and dates. From these data, it becomes obvious that the chances of encountering the bird in the same place the next day are not very high, although they are not zero.
So first I decided to check the locations where the bird had been the previous day. For this purpose, I walked from the upper part of Obolon Bay to the end of Natalka Park, scanning flocks of gulls. Yellow-legged, Herring, Common, and Mew Gulls were present, but I did not find a Great Black-backed Gull in those locations. When the Sun set, I headed toward the metro. However, instead of going to Pochaina, I decided to take a walk to Poshtova Square and see what was happening on the Dnipro there. This decision was not in vain. Before the railway bridge, there was a huge flock of gulls, in which even at dusk one bird stood out — very dark, black… That was when the suspicion arose that it might be the Great Black-backed Gull. This morning I reviewed the photos: the black bird was no smaller than the Yellow-legged and Herring Gulls, and the color of the mantle, from different angles, was indeed black. So I concluded that I had found it after all.
Conclusion: the Great Black-backed Gull does winter in Kyiv — but, damn it, it has wings and moves around.
| # | species | number | |
| 1 | Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) | ||
| 2 | Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) | ||
| 3 | Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) | ||
| 4 | Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) | ||
| 5 | Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) | ||
| 6 | Goosander (Mergus merganser) | ||
| 7 | Common Coot (Fulica atra) | ||
| 8 | Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) | ||
| 9 | Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) | ||
| 10 | Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) | ||
| 11 | Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans) | ||
| 12 | Mew Gull (Larus canus) | ||
| 13 | Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) | ||
| 14 | Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) | ||
| 15 | Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix) | ||
| 16 | Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) | ||
| 17 | Great Tit (Parus major) | ||
| 18 | Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) | ||