Appearance:
Medium-sized gull
Dark eye
Greenish-yellow legs
Yellow bill with black and red spot near tip
White head, underparts and tail
Slate-grey back
Black wingtips with white near tip
Listen to its call.
According to experts, the most important basic keys to identifying gulls are size, shape, and color pattern. However, there are so many variations between adult and immature gulls, as well as breeding and non-breeding plumage, that I find this an almost impossible task.
Unlike most of the gulls I've seen around Victoria, many of the ones in the Broken Group Islands had yellow legs. They also had both a red and black spot near the tip of their lower mandibles. As the California Gull is the only gull in southwestern British Columbia with both of these features, I had a relatively easy time with this identification ... thankfully.  |
| Difference in size between California Gull (left) and Ring-Billed Gull (right) |
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