Mew Gull

Larus canus

Gulls part 4 (final)

For this final iteration of my spotlight on gulls, I bring you the Mew gull, which, of several similar gulls having white heads and black wingtips with white spots, this one is the smallest. I could go on for months covering all the different kinds of gulls you may see in Washington and Oregon, but what I have learned from my research for these articles is that the chances are highest that the gull you are seeing is a Glaucous-winged (GW) gull, or some hybrid of one. They are in the largest size grouping and group size (confused yet?) of our Pacific Northwest gulls. If it’s winter on the Pacific Northwest Coast, and you are seeing a group of gulls that look like a ton of GW and baby GW gulls, you are seeing GW and Mew gulls. The easiest way to tell that the smaller ones are Mew gulls is that they lack the distinctive red-dot bill markings of the larger GW and Western gulls.

Mew gulls, along with many other types of gulls, have gray mantles, yellow bills, and white heads, bodies, and tails while in breeding plumage. Not much larger than Bonaparte’s, adult Mew’s have thin, almost pigeonlike, unmarked yellow bills and yellow legs. Their eyes are brown, mantle (back and upper surfaces of wings) medium gray. In nonbreeding plumage, the head and neck are strongly marked with gray. The extreme wingtips are black, with large white spots which can be used as a characteristic field mark. Like Bonaparte’s, this species is most commonly seen feeding along convergence lines but is common and widespread throughout the region in winter. Its small bill and dark eyes give it a gentler expression than the other larger species of gull.

Mew gulls are common all along the Pacific Coast in winter, but they spend the summer in Alaska and northwestern Canada, where they are often seen perched on top of spruce trees. They breed in small colonies or in isolated pairs. In courtship, females approach males who hold territory, in a hunched posture, wagging their head from side to side. Nest sites are found on high ground near water, or on top of stump or dense low spruce up to 20′ above ground.

Like most gulls, Mew gulls are Omnivorous. Their diet may be mostly small fish along the coast, mostly insects around inland lakes, but also eats crustaceans, mollusks, sea urchins, earthworms, small rodents, young birds of other species, carrion, and refuse. They may eat many berries in late summer, and grain at times.

Notes to help you identify the different species –

1. Compare sizes- Mew and Bonaparte’s gulls are small – you probably aren’t seeing babies.
2. Compare bill size/color – this can be one of the biggest indicators for the hybrids and the species of gulls who have similar markings.
3. Find one distinctive field mark and learn it, one species at a time– this will help you identify the one over the others, which is a great place to start at being able to tell them all apart eventually.

Hopefully what you have learned since I started these gull spotlights in August is that there is no such thing as a Seagull. That’s it! You can come back any time and brush up on the facts and comparisons between some of the gulls I featured here when you want to learn more, but for your everyday knowledge of gulls, that simple fact is all you need to know!

Did you know? Although the Mew Gull is a common bird along the Pacific Coast, it is a rarity in the East. Birds that appear along the Atlantic Coast are likely to be from Europe.

-Samantha Zeiner, Administrative Coordinator

Photos provided by Wikimedia Commons