A Beginner's Guide to Identifying Gulls: Common Species and Key Features
By Nick Lund
Gulls don’t get the love they deserve. Lots of people don’t like ‘em! They steal french fries! They’re aggressive! They’re loud and poop everywhere and are annoying and are too close to me!
Gulls sometimes even get a bad rap among birders, not because of the untrue reputations for dirtiness or poopiness that are held by the general public, but because they’re hard. Gulls can be really hard to identify to species, leaving even the most dedicated birders scratching their heads. There are a whole bunch of species – more than 20 regularly occur in the United States – and they’re (mostly) all some combination of white body and gray back. Their already-similar plumages get even more confusing when nonbreeding plumages, a host of subadult plumages, and frequent hybrid birds are included in the mix. The devils are in the details, and gulls are devils for a lot of us.
Gulls sometimes even get a bad rap among birders, not because of the untrue reputations for dirtiness or poopiness that are held by the general public, but because they’re hard. Gulls can be really hard to identify to species, leaving even the most dedicated birders scratching their heads. There are a whole bunch of species – more than 20 regularly occur in the United States – and they’re (mostly) all some combination of white body and gray back. Their already-similar plumages get even more confusing when nonbreeding plumages, a host of subadult plumages, and frequent hybrid birds are included in the mix. The devils are in the details, and gulls are devils for a lot of us.
Like a lot of things, the easiest way to begin gull identification is to break things down a little bit. The place to start is to understand which species are commonly found where you live, cutting that 20 species number down to just three or four. Let’s go region by region.
Common Gulls of New England
Gulls are an icon of the New England coast, but there are only a few species you really need to look out for. Descriptions will focus on adult gulls in nonbreeding plumage (generally Sept. to April), unless otherwise noted.
Herring Gull
This large species can be found at one time or another almost anywhere in America, but they’re most common, and found year-round, in New England. It has a white body and head, and a light gray back that the Behr company would call “Paparazzi Flash.” Herrings are the most common large gull in the area, and are commonly found on large inland water bodies as well as on the coast.
Ring-billed Gull
A smaller gull than Herrings, Ring-billed Gulls are most easily identified by the – you guessed it – dark ring around their bill. The smaller size, the ring, and their yellow legs are the most helpful physical identification clues, but habitat also helps: Ring-billed Gulls are much more likely to be seen in, say, a fast food parking lot or an agricultural field than other species.
Great Black-backed Gull
The largest species of gull in the world, if you can believe it. Great Black-backs are found along the immediate coast – rarely away from the ocean – across New England and down the Atlantic coast. Their dark gray backs are a more helpful identification clue than their size: these birds are the darkest regularly occurring gull, a shade the Chrysler auto company apparently calls “Viper Slate Crystal.” Hardcore!
Common Gulls of the Southeast
Laughing Gull
Aside from the Herring and Ring-billed Gulls mentioned above, which visit the Southeast in winter, the Laughing Gull is the only other species you really need to know. They’re easy to identify in the summer breeding season: they sport a full black hood. They lose their full hood in the winter, but still have black smudging on their head that helps separate them from others. They’re named for their jovial–and incessant–calls and can be found along most any southern beach year-round. The also breed on northeastern coasts during the summer.
Common Gulls of the Midwest
There aren’t a lot of gulls away from the ocean! While Herring and Ring-billed Gulls may be found on lakes, reservoirs and other water bodies throughout the Midwest in winter, they’re less common. But there is one special gull that Midwesterners should look out for.
Franklin’s Gull
These small gulls pass through Texas and up the Midwest to breeding colonies in the Prairie Pothole region each spring, and back again in the fall. They look a lot like Laughing Gulls except they have more white around their eyes and on their wings, though these species are rarely in the same place at the same time, so you won’t usually get confused. They’re an attractive species, and one of the Midwest’s few gulls.
Common Gulls of the Pacific Coast
Alright, so there are some Herring Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls on the Pacific Coast, but there are others, too. Pacific Coast people: bear with me. You have it the toughest. But this is about just trying to wrap our heads around things, so let’s get started!
Short-billed Gull
Similar to a Ring-billed Gull but smaller, and with a clean yellow bill. These cute gulls, also known as Mew Gulls, can be found along the Pacific Coast in winter, and year-round populations in Alaska.
California Gull
This species breeds across the Rocky Mountain West (it’s the state bird of Utah, believe it or not) and the plains of Canada and spends winters along the Pacific Coast. Not going to lie, California Gulls are a challenge for a novice to separate from Herring and Ring-billed Gulls, but the dark eye – not yellow, as with those other species – is the best clue.
Western Gull
This dark-backed species is basically the West Coast equivalent of the Great Black-backed Gull out East. Found all along the Pacific Coast south of Canada, Westerns are unlikely to be confused with any other common gull in the area.
Glaucous-winged Gull
A large gull, but one that’s relatively easy to identify. Unlike all of the other gulls on this list so far, Glaucous-winged Gulls don’t have black wing tips. The overall gray wings of this species really make it stand out. But beware: they frequently hybridize with Western Gulls, especially in the Puget Sound area, making very confusing offspring.
OK. We did it. We got through gulls, the most confusing and complex family of American birds to identify. Well, we got through some of them. We didn’t do the less-common species, like Lesser Black-backed Gull or Bonaparte’s Gull or Iceland Gull or Glaucous Gull or Heerman’s Gull, or the really rare species like Ivory Gull or Ross’ Gull. AND we are just focusing on the adults, not the immensely confusing, tear-your-hair-out juvenile plumages of these gulls, of which each species has several.
But we took the first step, and that’s better than nothing. Gulls are still scary, but not as bad as they were at first. Good luck, and good birding!