Wildlife of the Arctic by Richard Sale

Author:Richard Sale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Gulls are long-lived and take time to mature, the smaller gulls sometimes breeding in their second year, the larger ones not until they are four or five years old. Juveniles do not acquire their adult plumage for several years, and as the differences in juvenile plumages can be slight, identification of juvenile forms can be tricky. No attempt has been made to identify the changes in juvenile plumages in the descriptions here: whole books have been devoted to these changes. However, the time taken by juveniles to attain adult plumage is given. The species are classified as two-, three- or four-year gulls, the time being the number of winters before a juvenile acquires adult plumage, i.e. a four-year gull shows its adult plumage in the fourth winter of its life and will show full adult breeding plumage in its fourth spring. The sexes are essentially similar in all species.

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