Appearance:
Adult:
Large gull
White head and underparts
Light gray back
Gray wing-tips with white spots near tips
Thick, yellow bill with red spot near tip
Dark eyes with pink eye-ring
Pink legs
Listen to its call.
Flocks of gulls are a common sight, so common in fact that we frequently ignore them altogether. However, if you do take the time to study them, you will notice that although most of the ones around Victoria look very similar to this one, there are a number distinguishing features. These include their size, the colour of their legs, the colour and size of their bills and the colour of their wing-tips and backs. One of the main problems with identifying these gulls is the large number of hybrids around, crosses between Glaucous-winged Gulls and Western Gulls or Herring Gulls. I believe this bird is a pure Glaucous-winged Gull as its wingtips and back are a close match in colour. Hybrids usually have darker wingtips, which makes it difficult to differentiate them from Thayer's Gulls. It seems odd to have the different species of gulls cross-breeding. Perhaps they have as much trouble telling each other apart as we do!
Learn more about the Glaucous-winged Gull.
Additional pictures:
Nest with two baby gulls |
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