Gull ID Project: Introduction & California Gulls
Various Gulls
“GULLS? No Waaaayyeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” This is my favorite line in Gulls Simplified: A Comparative Approach to Identification by Pete Dunne & Kevin T. Karlson.
My sentiments exactly. I have avoided diving into gull identification for many years. Gull plumage and hybrids make my head swirl. Then one day I read a review in the Bird Watcher’s Digest magazine for the aforementioned book, which took a more non-plumage approach to gull ID. After reading this and in combination with a field guide, I am starting to find gull ID not so scary.
I plan to write about common SF Bay Area gulls and include a few tips on ID. I found that starting with local birds and focusing on adults was the best way to ease into this project.
First up, the California Gull (CAGU).
There are a few things I look for right away when I’m hoping to ID an adult gull, including eye color, bill shape/coloring, and legs. This is usually enough to get me started.
California Gull, Non-Breeding Adult
Adult California Gull: Basics
Eye Color: Dark
Bill Shape: Straight with no bulk
Bill Color: Yellow with red and black spots
Legs: Yellow
If all these traits line up, then chances are you’ve got yourself an adult CAGU! I used these four features to start identifying these gulls until I felt a bit more comfortable with picking them out of a crowd.
You can see just enough of the four traits to ID this as a California Gull. Note the yellow legs, dark eye, black & red spotted straight bill.
The following features were tips I learned from the Gulls Simplified: A Comparative Approach to Identification book:
California Gull: Going Deeper
Standing Position: The body dips at the end so that the tail is angled downward. Compare that to the very horizontal stance of other gulls like Ring-billed Gulls.
Winter Plumage: On adults, there is grayish spotting that is concentrated on the back of the neck. This is a different spotting pattern than other winter gulls where the entire head and neck are splotchy.
CAGU, Subadult. Note the tilted stance with the tail angled towards the bottom. Subadults also have blue legs.
There you go! Of course, this doesn’t even scratch the surface of CAGU ID, but at least the adults should be a bit easier to identify. Sit down with a bunch of gulls in a parking lot and spend some time looking at the differences in eye color, leg color, how they are standing, and anything else that seems different. Take pictures and study them at home, draw them in a notebook – whatever works to help commit this to memory!