Western Gull

Range & habitat

The western gull is a year-round resident in California, Oregon, Baja California, and southern Washington. It is migratory, moving to northern Washington, British Columbia, and Baja California Sur to spend the nonbreeding season.

Behaviour

The western gull rarely ventures more than approximately 100 miles inland, almost never very far from the ocean; it is almost an exclusively marine gull. It nests on offshore islands and rocks along the coast, and on islands inside estuaries. A colony also exists on Ano Nuevo Island, then Anacapa Island and Santa Barbara Island in Channel Islands National Park, and Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. In the colonies, long term pairs aggressively defend territories whose borders may shift slightly from year to year, but are maintained for the life of the male.

Adapted from Western gull on Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.