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California Gull | Larus californicus
Californische meeuw | Gaviota californiana
The California Gull breeds in the interior of western North America, on salt lakes and large lakes, and moves to the Pacific coast in winter. In the guide area it is a common winter visitor in Baja California and along the Gulf of California, and scarcer further south. The species is known for its role in controlling a plague of insects in Utah in the nineteenth century.
Voice
A high, shrill kyow and laughing series, higher than those of American Herring Gull.
Recording: Richard E. Webster — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
47–55 cm, a medium-sized gull between Ring-billed and American Herring Gull in size, with a dark eye, greenish-yellow to yellow legs and a yellow bill with a black and a red spot near the tip. Adults have a mid-grey mantle, slightly darker than in American Herring Gull, and black wingtips with white spots. In winter the hindhead and neck are streaked brown. Juveniles are scaled grey-brown, with a pink bill with a black tip, and acquire adult plumage in four years.
Confusion species
American Herring Gull Larus smithsonianus is larger, with a paler mantle, pink legs and a pale eye. Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis is smaller, with a paler mantle, a pale eye and a complete black ring around the bill. Short-billed Gull Larus brachyrhynchus is smaller, with a short, unmarked bill and a rounder head.
Habitat
Beaches, lagoons, estuaries, mudflats, harbours and rubbish dumps, and sometimes inland lakes. Feeds on fish, invertebrates and refuse.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In winter common along the coasts of Baja California and Baja California Sur, in the Gulf of California and along the coast of Sonora, and less numerous south through Sinaloa, Nayarit and Jalisco to Colima. Further south, to Oaxaca, and in Central America rare, with records from Guatemala and El Salvador to Panama; very rare on the Gulf coast. Outside the guide area the species breeds in the interior of the western United States and Canada and winters mainly along the Pacific coast of the United States.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Flocks of gulls on beaches and in harbours of Baja California and Sonora offer the best chance in winter. The dark eye and the black and red spot on the bill separate adults from American Herring Gull.
Conservation status
Not threatened globally. The population is large; the colonies on inland salt lakes are sensitive to changes in water level. In the guide area a winter visitor with no breeding population.
Scientific name
Larus californicus | Lawrence, 1854
Lawrence described the species in 1854 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Larus was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Larus is Latin, from Ancient Greek laros, and appears to have referred to a gull or another large seabird. californicus refers to California. The specimen the first description was based on came from near Stockton, California.