Black-tailed gulls in Tokyo's Ueno causing headaches for residents - Asahi Shimbun

[Chris Merkord]

Black-tailed gulls fly above a condominium building in the Ueno district of Tokyo’s Taito Ward on May 31. (Yosuke Watanabe)

Tokyo’s Ueno has the distinction of being the world’s only urban district where black-tailed gulls have built nests on the rooftops of condominium buildings.

 

But residents there, tired of the splattering droppings and incessant bird calls, are desperately trying to evict their loud and messy new neighbors.

 

According to the environment section of the Taito Ward office, black-tailed gulls have built groups of nests on at least seven condominium buildings in the ward. As many as 100 gulls sometimes fly to each of the buildings.

 

According to Hiroyoshi Higuchi, project professor of ornithology at Keio University, who has conducted research on black-tailed gulls in urban areas, the birds were previously seen in Tokyo only in winter when they were spending the season there.

 

Around 2002, the gulls started appearing in the capital from spring to summer. In 2011, Higuchi’s research showed that the birds were building nests on Ueno rooftops.

 

Read more: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201308120010