Scientific Name: Larus Glaucescens
Diet: Glaucous-Winged Gulls are omnivores, and they eat almost anything they can get at. This includes carrion, fish, seaweed, mussels, barnacles, sea urchins, limpets, marine invertebrates, eggs, and chicks. They also eat human trash.
Habitat: The Glaucous-Winged Gull can be found on coasts, beaches, and rocky islands, but it is also fairly common in cities and dumps. Glaucous-Winged Gulls roost in fields and on roofs.
Range: Glaucous-Winged Gulls can be found all year round along Washington’s coast and in the puget sound, and also North along Canada’s coast. During the non-breeding season they live on the coast south of Washington down to the bottom of the US.
Sound: The Glaucous-Winged Gull’s call is a loud kow! kow! kow! or keow! keow! keow!.
Nesting: Glaucous-Winged Gulls nest in colonies on low islands or rocky ledges. They start breeding when the are 4 years old, and lay their eggs from late May to July. The nest is a depression in the ground filled with grass, moss, string, seaweed, twigs, and roots. Glaucous-Winged Gulls lay 2-3 eggs, and they incubate them for about 4 weeks. After hatching the chicks stay in the nest for only about 2 days, but they stay near the nest for a while longer.
Behavior: Glaucous-Winged Gulls can often be found scavenging in garbage dumps, on beaches, in intertidal zones, and out at sea. They also steal food from other seabirds. If one finds a shellfish it can’t pry open it will fly over a rock and drop the shellfish to crack open the shell.
Description/Field Marks: Glaucous-Winged Gulls have white heads and necks with black eyes and yellow bills. On the ends of their bills they have red dots. Their wings are grey, and their outer primary feathers are striped grey and white (more prominent when wings are folded). They have white tails and pink legs.
Glaucous-Winged Gull