Gull help for birders in the Vancouver area

This is a short guide to the gulls that birders in the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia may run into. Also, this doubles as a visual reference to gull ID... I hope.  

There are 9 regularly spotted gulls in the Vancouver area ( Glaucous-winged, California, Mew, Ring-billed, Herring, Bonaparte's, Heermann's, Western, and Thayer's ). There are also several rare species that are reported annually ( Franklin's, Glaucous, and Iceland ), and a mouth-watering assortment of MEGA rarity gulls that have only been seen in the Lower Mainland a handful of times, ( Black-tailed, Black-headed, Little, Sabine's, Slaty-backed, and many more ).

"Gulling" as it's dubbed, is much better in winter, as they crowd fields, pastures, and landfills, providing easy visuals of many species side-by-side. The turf farm at 72nd street in Delta can produce at least 8 species of gull if scoped carefully in winter.

At this time of year ( summer ), Mew, Ring-billed, California, Glaucous-winged, and Heermann's are virtually the only species of gull possible to see. Franklin's do show up though, and I had one at Boundary Bay in late July.

Here is a selection of pictures I've taken over the years to help you with gull identification. I haven't photographed every species possible, but I've tried.


Glaucous-winged Gull - typical adult


Glaucous-winged Gull - immature


Herring Gull - 1st cycle immature


Herring Gulls - typical adults


California Gull - nice adult


California Gulls - a group of adults, you can see the wingtips ( primaries ) better here than in the first picture


Ring-billed Gull - adult


Ring-billed Gull - adult preening


Iceland Gulls - winter plumage adult on left, immature on right


Thayer's Gull - adult in centre of image, three California Gulls above it


Mew Gull - beautiful winter-plumage adult


Mew Gull - immature


Glaucous Gull - "yellowy" immature


Heermann's Gulls - adults ( or three musketeers )


Heermann's Gull - adult, flying


Bonaparte's Gull - adult


Bonaparte's Gull - immature, flying


Bonaparte's Gull - adult, flying


Franklin's Gull - immature

I hope this helps in your quest for gull identification, Guy, and whoever else needs help in the trickeries of gull identification.

To conclude, remember, there are gull hybrids, which may cause groaning and head-scratching, and some of you may just want to stop at distinct species. Anyways, there are two common gull hybrids in the Lower Mainland; the Western X Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid, and the Herring X Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid. There are others, but they are extremely hard to distinguish, and rare. I do not have a picture of the Herring X Glaucous-winged, but as Western X Glaucous-winged hybrids are everywhere, I am bound to have pictures of them.


Western X Glaucous-winged Gull ( hybrid ) - muddy adult


Western X Glaucous-winged Gull ( hybrid ) - immature, flying

This is merely a photographic guide of the differences between the species. If I were to describe every detail separating them, and go into depth about age, plumage variations, and moulting, we could be here for hours! Again, this is just a selection of photos which you can compare, and I hope it helps to aid the identification of the gulls if you're at your last resort.

Logan - gull nerd at heart!