The black-billed gull/Tarāpuka

On one hand, you have New Zealand’s most common coastal gull, the red-billed gull. On the other hand, you have this guy, the black-billed gull (Larus bulleri), which is not just New Zealand’s most threatened gull species, but the world’s most threatened. Their numbers are still okay, but the rate of decline is a serious worry: The black-billed gull’s stronghold is Southland, and there its populations has declined by 80% in the last thirty years. This bird was photographed at Lake Rotoiti, in Nelson Lakes National Park.