On Fri, 28 Jul 1995, Alvaro Jaramillo wrote:

> As well, the first juvenile CAlifornia gulls have arrived here. The
> three birds I saw had completely black bills, not the typical bicolored bill
> of young Californias. I have noticed this in Vancouver as well. It appears
> that the youngest juveniles have dark bills, that quickly become pale on the
> base. Michael Price has commented that he has observed this as well.
> However, it does not appear to be widely known. Does this only happen on
> some individuals, or is it a general rule?

The two or three very early (7/16) juvenile Californias that I saw at the
Washington coast had entirely black bills, as far as I could see. I will
pay close attention in the future. Note that soft part colors of young
gulls and terns are one of the more consistently misrepresented marks in
field guides. Witness the illustrations of immature Arctic and Common
Terns in the National Geographic Guide. The pictures show these terns
with bright red or orange (adult-like) legs and feet, while in fact they
are always black in immatures of those species. As of publication of the
edition I have, they still hadn't corrected the pictures. I don't have my
guide to hand as I write, so they may have gotten the leg color right on
the actual Juveniles (pink in common, blackish in Roseate is all I
remember offhand from tern colony days), but the immature/subadult plumages
definitely had some mistakes.


Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu