Glaucous-winged Gull  Larus glaucescens Naumann
 
     Identification

     Images

     Life History

     Data

     Distribution

 

  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 

First winter Glaucous-winged Gull at Sidney BC - February 19, 2003.  © Michael G. Shepard.

  
  Glaucous-winged Gull Identification:  
 
  • One of the largest of North American gulls.  As an adult in alternate plumage, it typically has a white head and tail, pink legs and feet, pale gray mantle
    and primaries about the same color as the mantle.
  • As with other large gulls of the genus Larus, this species' bill has a pronounced gonydeal angle.
  

 


                                         Adult

  
   
   
   

 


                              First Winter
  • Eyes are usually dark.
  • Juvenile/first winter birds are relatively uniform in color, tending to be quite gray in overall appearance.  More discussion on plumages can be found in the Glaucous-winged Gull image gallery.
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Glaucous-winged Gull Life History:
This species is a generalist carnivore, hunting and scavenging in a wide variety of habitats.  A common
visitor to man-created refuse areas (garbage dumps, fish processing plants), it is readily attracted by scraps.  Large numbers of the species will sit and wait for humans to
arrive with food.  In less "civilized" locales, this species scavenges dead salmon along rivers and streams, hunts schooling fish on the open ocean, and forages for invertebrates in the intertidal zone.  Huge numbers often gather at herring spawn area, gorging on this rich food source.  The Glaucous-winged Gull also gathers in fields after rains, consuming earthworms and other soil invertebrates driven to the surface.
                                 Immature Glaucous-winged Gull scavenging a fish carcass
 		    
   
   
  Glaucous-winged Gulls enjoying free handouts, joined in the scrum by Rock Pigeons and Northwestern Crows.  
     
   
   
      Adults may start staking out territories as early as late January, and by mid-April, most colonies are fully occupied.  On the main colonies, most full clutches consist of three eggs.  Smaller clutches are more prevalent on peripheral colonies.  Eggs usually hatch between 27 and 29 days, with the young fledging 35-40 days later.  
     
     
     
  Glaucous-winged Gull Distribution:
Primarily a coastal breeder, with the bulk of the population nesting in Alaska and British Columbia.  In winters it drifts somewhat southward, occurring commonly down to California.  This species was formerly almost exclusively coastal in distribution, venturing up the largest rivers to salmon spawning areas.  Nowadays, likely due to the proliferation of garbage dumps and other sources of offal, Glaucous-winged Gulls are becoming a regular feature much further inland.  They are of annual occurrence in small numbers far up the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Oregon, Washington into Idaho.  In British Columbia they have recently bred in the Okanagan Valley where they now occur year round.  On December 1, 2001 Chris Charlesworth tallied an exceptionally high number of 40 birds at the Kelowna BC dump.  As abundant as they are on the Pacific coast, they still rarely cross the Rockies.  There are only a smattering of records in central and eastern Canada/USA.  One recent report was of an adult at Florence NJ on March 1, 2003 (fide Laurie Larson - first state record, if accepted).  Huge numbers gather in the Vancouver BC area in the late winter - Rick Toochin et al. found an estimated 110,000 birds at the Delta landfill on several occasions in February 2003.

A range map is posted on Steve Hampton's Gull Web Site at
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/6181/gl-w_d.htm

Glaucous-winged Gull Images:
Click HERE to view our large image gallery for this species.

  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
                           
 

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