The red-billed gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae scopulinus), known in Māori as tarāpunga or akiaki, is a native New Zealand seabird. It is a notorious "pirate by theft" — meaning it frequently dive-bombs and steals food directly out of the beaks of other birds or snatches chips right out of beachgoers' hands. Unlike some seabirds, red-billed gulls do not plunge-dive into the deep ocean for fish; instead, they scoop items from the surface, scavenge along the tide line, or hunt worms and insects in field. It is treated as a subspecies of the silver gull found across Australia, New Zealand, and parts of the wider region. The specific New Zealand form (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae scopulinus, known locally as tarāpunga) is an endemic subspecies found throughout New Zealand and its outlying islands.
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