California Gull (Larus californicus)

Description: The California gull is very similar in appearance to the Western gull, with the same white body, grey wings, and black tail with white spots. However, the California Gull has yellow legs instead of the Western gull’s pink. Western gulls are the predominate species of gull around Haystack Rock, but California gulls are often found on the Northern end of Cannon Beach by the Ecola Creek estuary.

Habitat: The California gull ranges from Southern British Columbia to Baja California, Mexico and can be seen as far East as the Dakotas and Manitoba, Canada. Unlike Western gulls, the California gull migrates. They are seen in Oregon, and along the entire West Coast in the winter, and the breeding season they fly East to central Canada to Nest.

Nesting: Settling in colonies in marshy areas of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, and North Dakota, California gulls build ground nests for their young. Females lay 2 to 3 eggs and both parents incubate for 23 to 27 days. Chicks fledge 45 days after hatching.

Diet: California gulls are scavengers. They have a varied diet that includes fish, marine invertebrates, insects, chicks and eggs of other birds, carrion, and human scraps and garbage.

Tide Pool Tidbits:

• California gulls can lay as many as 5 eggs, but if a mother lays more than 3 a second female in the colony will assist with incubation.

• Young California gulls have been observed dropping sticks in midair and swooping down to catch them to practice their flying and catching skills.

• The oldest recorded California gull in the wild was more than 28 years old.

Reference: The Cornell Lab, Audubon