Thousands of seagulls have made a Christchurch Pak’nSave their home
A Christchurch supermarket roof has become the winter roosting site for several thousand red-billed gulls, creating a striking urban spectacle.
Red-billed gulls have been gathering in their thousands on the roof of Pak'nSave Moorhouse in Christchurch, particularly during winter months, since at least 2013. The birds migrate from coastal breeding sites to use the supermarket roof as a safe roosting space away from predators. An ornithologist notes the flock represents a nationally significant portion of the species population, which has declined by half since 1983 due to changes in marine food supply.
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‘It’s mesmeric’: The Christchurch supermarket thousands of seagulls call home
Woolworths has Ooshies. New World has knives. Pak’nSave has seagulls. It was some time in autumn, 2013, when Lucy D’Aeth was doing her regular early evening cycle ride home down Manchester Street. Much of the CBD was still cordoned off…