The Urban Pantheist

Photos by urbpan. Location: The Seattle Center.

Urban species #216: Glaucous-winged gull Larus glaucesens

It's a well-known fact that coastal cities attract gulls. These large scavenging birds have no qualms about treating human industry and settlements as food sources. From Alaska down to Northern Washington, the gull most commonly seen in the city is the glaucous-winged gull. ("Glaucous" is an odd word used by botanists and ornithologists to refer to a pale, powdery, grayish greenish bluish color.) The glaucous-winged gull collects in large groups in the center of Seattle, battling crows for scraps of bread and tossed pieces of popcorn. It perches on the skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver, illuminated by neon signs at night and floating down into alleyways to raid dumpsters in the daytime. They follow fishing boats and garbage barges out to sea. As the population of Northwestern cities has been rising in the past half-century, the population of glaucous-winged gulls has more than tripled.

The glaucous-winged gull is as big as a herring gull (with which it sometimes interbreeds), with a proportionally larger bill. It has distinctively pink legs, and pale gray wings. The herring gull has some black primary feathers that contrast with its gray wings.



( with a Seattle crow )