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February in New York is grim. The weather sucks, it’s miserably cold, and the holidays are ancient history. In many ways, it’s the least romantic month. It’s also somehow the perfect time to get out and stare at hundreds of seemingly identical birds, all of which will stare back belligerently into your sad, winter-shrunken soul. That’s right—it’s time for Gullentine’s Day. 

This Valentine’s spoof started as a joke in 2019, born of my love of gulls and my friend’s knack for bad puns. But the idea turned out to be hugely popular when I advertised a local outing on the ’s Instagram account. Every year since, dozens of us have braved the cold to learn how to identify our winter regulars: Ring-billed, American Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls. We also dig into the ID points of any rarities we find, such as Black-headed, Laughing, Bonaparte’s, Iceland, or Lesser Black-backed. 

Yes, gull identification is a little fussy, a little more focused on subtle details than most other IDs. Once you spend time with a lot of gulls, though, you’ll start to notice their differences instead of their similarities. (Even if you cannot dial in a species ID, being able to narrow it down to genus is still useful. Relatively large and chunky bird with a white head, gray back, and heavy beak? Looks like what you’d see if there was a photo next to the entry for “gull” in a dictionary? That’s a Larus gull.) But as with all the birding events I help lead, my main goal isn’t to make anyone an expert. It’s about helping people get comfortable with ambiguity and puzzling out answers—skills that will make them better birders year-round. 
 
So this February, grab some pals (or encourage a local birding group to organize an event!) and head to a nearby landfill, sewage pond, or other truly romantic hotspot. With gullfriends like these, who needs a valentine? 

This story originally ran in the Winter 2025 issue as “Call Your Gullfriend.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by .