Great black-backed gull stomach contents of great black-backed gulls was made up of birds, while a further 17% of stomach contents was made up of tern eggs alone. Adult or fledged juveniles of various bird species have also been predaceously attacked. Some fully-fledged or adult birds observed to be hunted in flight or on the ground by great black-backed gulls have included "Anas" ducks, ruddy ducks ("Oxyura jamaicensis"), buffleheads ("Bucephala albeola"), Manx shearwaters ("Puffinus puffinus"), pied-billed grebes ("Podilymbus podiceps"), common moorhens ("Gallinula chloropus"), terns, Atlantic puffins ("Fratercula arctica"), coots ("Fulica" ssp.), glossy ibises ("Plegadis falcinellus"), rock pigeons ("Columba livia") and even predatory birds
Procellariidae with "Pseudobulweria" being phylogenetically closer to the "Puffinus" shearwaters than the "Pterodroma" gadfly petrels, and "Aphrodroma" (the Kerguelen petrel) possibly being closely related to the shearwaters or the fulmars. The prions, according to Nunn and Stanley, were among the larger shearwater group. The "Calonectris" shearwaters were placed close to the two "Puffinus" clades (closer to the Puffinus, or small, clade) and both were distant to the "Procellaria" shearwaters. The relationships between the genera and within the genera are still the subject of debate, with researchers lumping and splitting the species and genera within the family and arguing about the position