Species: Larus californicus

California Gull
Species

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    A steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Cascade River, WA, 2014. Photo: © Morgan Bond http://www.morganhbond.com/
    Kingdom
    Animalia
    Phylum
    Craniata
    Class

    Aves

    Order

    Charadriiformes

    Family

    Laridae

    Genus

    Larus

    Classification
    Other Global Common Names
    Gaviota Californiana - goéland de Californie
    Informal Taxonomy
    Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds
    Formal Taxonomy
    Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Charadriiformes - Laridae - Larus - (AOU 1998).
    Migration
    false - false - true
    Non-migrant
    false
    Locally Migrant
    false
    Food Comments
    In inland areas, feeds on insects (crickets, grasshoppers, cutworms) and mice. At Mono Lake, California, recently fledged gulls fed mainly on, and aparently preferred, alkali flies (Elphick and Rubega 1995, Great Basin Nat. 55:363-367). Along the coast, feeds on dead fish and garbage; scavenges behind boats, around harbors and dumps.
    Reproduction Comments
    Breeding begins late April in south to early June in north. Both sexes incubate 3 eggs for 23-27 days. Semi-precocial young are tended by both parents. In southern California, fledging was almost complete by the end of July. May form female-female pairs.
    Ecology Comments
    May gather in large flocks, often in association with Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. Great Horned Owl may cause significant mortality in breeding colony (California, Jehl and Mahoney 1987). Home range: breeding pairs in Montana foraged an average of 17.4 kilometers (maximum 61 kilometers) from colony (Baird 1976). At another colony, maximum foraging distance was 32 kilometers (Rothweiler 1960).
    Length
    53
    Weight
    609
    NatureServe Global Status Rank
    G5
    Global Status Last Reviewed
    1996-11-27
    Global Status Last Changed
    1996-11-27
    Other Status

    LC - Least concern

    Conservation Status Map
    <img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.AB=S4&CA.BC=S3&CA.MB=S4&CA.NT=S4&CA.ON=__&CA.SK=S5&US.AK=__&US.AZ=__&US.CA=S2&US.CO=S4&US.ID=S2&US.MT=S5&US.NN=__&US.NE=__&US.NV=S5&US.NM=__&US.NC=__&US.ND=SNR&US.OR=S5&US.SD=S2&US.TX=__&US.UT=S5&US.WA=S4&US.WY=S2" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
    Global Range
    BREEDS: interior North America from southern Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba south to east-central North Dakota, central Montana, northwestern Wyoming, eastern Idaho, northwestern Utah, northwestern Nevada, eastern California, southeasternuthern Washington. The largest nesting concentration (about 130,000-150,000 in 1988-1991) occurs around the Great Salt Lake, Utah (Paton et al. 1992). WINTERS: southern Washington, eastern Idaho, south along Pacific coast to southern Baja California northwestern Mexico; rare in Hawaii.
    ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.100812