LOL, now do the Navy Gulls copypasta or "here's the thing..."

It counts for me! But we need something objective, this is SCIENCE after all. A question, when the Swedish Larus marinus, a.k.a. Havstrut walks, what does it look like? I think you see where I'm going with this, is there a bit of a swagger? Does L. marinus have strut?

There are weirdly rigid common names around birds. There is a whole thing about renaming them right now. They are essentially regulated terms that low level pedants respect. They are the same types of people who would correct you for calling Frankenstein's monster 'Frankenstein'.

The plant community is better. You could call a "sunflower" a "tall flower" and nobody would care. You might get a "oh, I've never heard that one" but never "there's no such thing as a 'tall flower.'" They just fall back to the scientific names when clarity is important.

IMO common names should just be useful. I will call any gull a seagull when talking to non-bird people because that is a term that is commonly understood and how effective communication works.

My whole point of posting was to point out how inane, and pedantic the distinction between Gull and Seagull actually is, which is the distinction that OP made. And of course on the Fediverse that generated a whole lot of conversation, including this sentence.

I've seen a gull eat a dead pigeon in the town square. I don't think I want their presents any more than the ones my cats think I do.

Yeah but like, my dog is a dog but it's also a Labrador and also has a name. The great black-backed gull is also known as Larus marinus which means sea gull, and is also commonly referred to as a seagull. By what notion is that not a seagull?

Bonjour, allô, salut!