Utah Winter Gulls

  
by Dennis Shirley


General Information  |  Gull Identification  |  Immature Gulls  |  Key to Adult Gulls  |  Species List  |

    
     Little Gull
  (similar species)
  

Non-breeding Adult - blackish eye crescents, ear spot and gray cap;
bill is small and black, legs are red
Photo by Jack Binch   ŠJack Binch
  

Adult little Gull - has wings that are pale gray above
and black beneath with a white trailing border.

   Photo by Jack Binch   ŠJack Binch
  

  

Little Gull

Similar Species
   Bonaparte's Gull - has a larger bill, a white wedge on the outer primaries, white underwings, black wing tips and white eye crescents.  Adult Bonaparte's has neat black primary tips; Immature lacks blackish cap and has a black trailing edge on the wing, narrowly tipped with white.
   Black-headed Gull (no picture) - has dusky inner primaries on underwing; immature has mostly white outer primaries mostly above, wings with blackish trailing edge, and a pale bill with a black tip.

            

Non-breeding Little Gull (on left) - is obviously much smaller than a Bonaparte's, has a relatively
smaller bill, has black rather than white eye crescents, and has a small black cap on its head.
   Photo
by Jack Binch   ŠJack Binch
  

Bonaparte's Gulls - have pointed wings that are white underneath
and a black trailing edge of the wings unlike Little Gulls.

   Photo by Kendall Brown   ŠKendall W. Brown
  
  
 
 

Return to the Utah Birds Home Page