California Gull, Larus californicus


California Gull
California Gulls in breeding plumage, pictured above and in the two below, show a red gonydeal spot (the spot on the bill), a red gape (corner of the mouth), and red orbital ring (the bare skin around the eye). In the last few decades, thousands of these birds have come to nest in southern San Francisco Bay, where previously they were rare in breeding season. Most California Gulls nest on lakes in the interior west, most famously the Great Salt Lake, where their arrival in the summer of 1848 and subsequent foraging demolition of a plague of plant-eating insects was seen by the Mormons as a divine intervention to rescue their new settlement there. As a result of the "Miracle of the Gulls," the California Gull is the state bird of Utah, commemorated by the Seagull Monument in Salt Lake City's Temple Square.
 


California Gull


California Gull


California Gull
Above and below, adult California Gulls in their non-breeding plumage; they winter in large numbers along the Pacific Coast. Their gonydeal spot is usually a mixture of black and red.
 


California Gull


California Gull
Above, a California Gull in third-cycle winter plumage -- similar to adult plumage, but recognizable here by the absence of red on the bill. Below, another third cycle bird (left) fighting with a non-breeding adult; this one has red in the bill, but the dark feathers in the tail identify it as sub-adult, by contrast to the all-white tail of the adults further above.


California Gulls



California Gull
Above and below, California Gulls at the end of their first cycle, in the summer of their second calendar year; the bird above is more worn and faded, the one below retains more of the dark feather tips that create the characteristic brown first-year appearance.


California Gull


California Gull
Above, a first-cycle California Gull in winter; below, a bird in August, still in its juvenal plumage.


California Gull