Ring-billed Gulls – I Like Photographing Them Year Round In Northern Utah

I like gulls, I like the way they look, I like the way they fly, I like the way they try to steal food from each other and other birds, I like the challenges of photographing them and I really like how scrappy they are.

Ring-billed Gull flying over a freshwater marsh – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/3200, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Yes, I know in some areas they can be considered pests or too common to pay attention to and that some bird photographers will walk or drive right by them without taking a single photo. I’m not one of those bird photographers, when I have the opportunity I will photograph them.

Ring-billed Gulls are one of two gull species that afford me the opportunity to photograph them quite often because they are seen here in Utah year round. The other species is our state bird, the California Gull.

I photographed this Ring-billed Gull last week as it flew over the freshwater marsh at Farmington Bay WMA, it may have been looking for food to catch itself or it may have been looking for another bird to steal food from.

Ring-billed Gull hunting for food – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/4000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I took photos of this Ring-billed Gull the same day as it flew over hunting for food too. To the untrained eye they might even look like the same bird but for me a quick glance tells me that the bird in the first photo is younger than the one in this image. How? Adult Ring-billed Gulls don’t have black spots on their tails in breeding or nonbreeding plumage. The gull in the top photo I would label a second winter bird (even though it is fall right now and  not technically winter yet) using the illustrations in the Sibley Guide to Birds. This gull I’d label an adult in nonbreeding plumage.

I always find it fun and challenging to photograph Ring-billed Gulls in flight but I also enjoy trying to figure out how old the immature birds are. Perhaps that shows the geekier, birder side of me more than the bird photographer but I’m actually a combination of both.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Ring-billed Gull photos plus facts and information about this species.