Know Before You Go

These familiar seabirds are primarily gray in color, with white, gray and black on their wingtips. Their bills are red with black tips, and their legs are black; juveniles are wholly brown with a pink bill and black tip. These gulls reach maturity at three years of age and breed almost entirely on Rasa Island, in the Gulf of California east of the Baja California Peninsula, from March through June. Later, they return to the north along the west coast of the United States and Vancouver.