Glaucous-winged Gull

Larus glaucescens

PNW Gulls pt 2

The Glaucous-winged Gull is the most abundant and wide-spread gull in Washington state, and the most recognizable because of it. Typically, during the non-breeding season, adult Glaucous-winged Gulls have a solid grey-blue mantle (back and wings), a white tail, and a white head streaked with brown. They have a very large bill that is yellow with a red spot on the underside, and their legs are pink. They have grey or grey-black wingtips, which helps to differentiate them from other gull species, who usually have deep black wingtips. During mating season, their head becomes pure white, and their eye has a fleshy pink eye-ring. Juvenile Glaucous-winged Gulls are a mottled brown with a dark eye and bill. It takes them four years to reach full adult plumage, with advanced adult plumage gained in varying degrees each successive year. Even better, Glaucous-winged Gulls frequently hybridize with other gulls, creating displays of intermediate plumage characteristics! So identifying this gull is both easy, and super hard. The one thing to note is that these gulls nest and live in the same places and do not seem to migrate far, and being as abundant as they are, there is a good chance that this is the type of gull you’re seeing, or a hybrid of one (this is a completely unscientific conclusion based mostly on my observations after researching for this article – it’s like Red-tailed Hawks at the Refuge, seems like everything is a red-tail).

Glaucous-winged Gulls breed all along the coast of Washington (and less commonly in eastern Washington) in monogamous pairs that stay together for multiple breeding seasons. Nesting is done in colonies, and these birds first breed around the same time they have their full adult plumage, at four years of age. Nests are found on the ground. The spot is scraped clean, and a ring of vegetation and nearby debris is built up. Sometimes more than one nest is started, but only one is completed and used. Both gull parents incubate 2-3 eggs for about four weeks. Newborn chicks are covered in fluffy down and may leave the nest as soon as two days after hatching, but they stay near the nest. Both

parents feed the chicks, who begin to fly at 5-7 weeks old. These babies leave the colony about 2 weeks after that.

As many of you have witnessed while trying to camp or picnic at the beach, Glaucous-winged Gulls will eat most anything. Their natural diet most often includes fish and other marine creatures, small birds, eggs, small mammals, and invertebrates from waterlogged fields. Of course, we see them eating refuse from dumps, sewage ponds, trash cans, and parking lots, or stealing the package of hotdogs directly off the picnic table.

Did You Know? When not boldly stealing off the table, Glaucous-winged Gulls forage in a variety of styles–while walking, flying, or swimming. Like other large gulls, they have been observed dropping shellfish onto rocks and other hard surfaces from far above in order to crack them open. They steal food from other seabirds and prey on young birds, especially those nesting nearby.