California Gull

California Gull, adult, breeding plumage

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California Gull, adult, non-breeding plumage

California Gull, 1st winter plumage

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

A common winter gull of the West Coast, the California Gull breeds inland across large areas of the West. It can be found in parking lots and lakes from California to Manitoba.

Description

• Medium-sized gull.
• Yellow bill with black ring near the tip and red spot on lower mandible.
• Head and underparts white.
• Back medium dark gray.
• Wingtips black with white spots.
• Legs yellow-green.

• Size: 47-54 cm (19-21 in)
• Wingspan: 130 cm (51 in)
• Weight: 430-1045 g (15.18-36.89 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes alike in plumage, male slightly larger than female.

Sound

Call a scratchy, hoarse series of "aow" and "uh-uh-uh" notes.

Conservation Status

Common. Populations have increased over last 100 years.

Other Names

Goéland de Californie (French)
Gaviota Californiana (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• The California Gull is the "seagull" that came to the aid of Mormon settlers in Utah, helping rid their crops of a plague of grasshoppers. A golden statue in Salt Lake City commemorates the event, and in recognition the California Gull was made the state bird of Utah.
• The California Gull, like most gulls, is an opportunistic feeder, eating anything it can catch or scavenge. It has an odd foraging strategy for catching alkali flies along the shores of salty lakes in the Great Basin. It starts at one end of a huge raft of flies sitting on the beach and runs through the flies with its head down and bill open, snapping up flies.

• Both parents incubate the eggs, taking turns throughout the day at about three to four hour intervals. Usually an adult calls as it flies into the nest area. The incubating gull stands up and gives several "Long Calls" as its mate lands near the nest. The returning mate joins in calling, and the pair sometimes walks around their tiny territory together. Sometimes the incubating bird does not stand up right away, and the returning mate has to resort to making different display calls, presenting nest material to the incubator, or physically nudging the bird to get it off the nest.

• Two different subspecies of California Gull exist. The gulls that breed in the Great Basin region of the western United States are smaller and darker backed, and those breeding in the Great Plains are larger and paler.

Sources used to construct this page:

Winkler, D. W. 1996. California Gull (Larus californicus). In The Birds of North America, No. 259 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.