How to Identify aCalifornia Gull
Larus californicus · 18.5–21.3 in (47–54 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
White head and body, medium-gray back, yellow bill marked with both red and black, and yellow-green legs; dark eye. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male but smaller.
Male photo: Dick Daniels (http://theworldbirds.org/) / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Second photo: (c) Madeleine Claire, some rights reserved (CC BY) / Wikimedia, CC BY 4.0
Field marks
- Both a red AND a black mark near the bill tip
- Greenish-yellow legs
- Dark eye, unlike the pale eye of a Herring Gull
- Medium gray back, between a Ring-billed and a Western Gull
Similar species
What it sounds like
A repeated, hoarse, laughing series of calls at colonies.
Behaviour that gives it away
Nests inland at salt lakes rather than on the coast, moving west to the Pacific only after breeding.
Habitat & range
Interior lakes and marshes in summer; Pacific coast, farm fields and cities in winter.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in western and central North America you are, it is present all year and a winter visitor.
What it eats
Insects, fish, refuse, eggs and grain.
Did you know?
It is the state bird of Utah, honoured for eating the crickets that threatened the Mormon settlers’ crops in 1848.
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