{"id":41251,"date":"2016-08-23T04:44:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T10:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=41251"},"modified":"2025-08-05T13:45:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:45:47","slug":"adult-and-juvenile-ring-billed-gulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/08\/23\/adult-and-juvenile-ring-billed-gulls\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult and Juvenile Ring-billed Gulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult Ring-billed Gull in flight on a January morning – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, +1.0 EV, Nikon 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

When some birds fledge they look very much like their parents and usually there are just a few ways you can tell them from the adults. But in Ring-billed Gulls they look very different.<\/p>\n

This adult Ring-billed Gull was photographed this past January at Farmington Bay WMA as it flew past me. I love the clean white plumage, the definite ring on the bill and the soft gray of the upper parts of its wings.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Ring-billed Gull at Bear River MBR – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikon 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking at the gull above it would be hard for some people to tell that it is the same species as the gull in the photo above, but it is. I photographed this juvenile or hatch year Ring-billed Gull one year ago today while photographing at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.<\/p>\n

No ring on the bill, no clean white and no gray showing at all. It will take several molts before this immature Ring-billed Gull looks like an adult but by now, a year after it was photographed, this juvenile should look more like the adult.<\/p>\n

I think both adult and juvenile Ring-billed Gulls are beautiful whether they are on the wing or in the water.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Ring-billed Gull photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

(Sorry for hitting the publish button before I added my text content this morning, I needed more coffee!)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will take several molts before this immature Ring-billed Gull looks like an adult but by now, a year after it was photographed, this juvenile should look more like the adult. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,1022,697,410,26],"tags":[4004,4052,4122,3539,521,5381,4067,4071,4264,4094,4468,2315,4095,373],"class_list":["post-41251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-ring-billed-gulls","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-hatch-year","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-marsh","tag-ring-billed-gull","tag-summer-3","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-winter-mia-mcpherson-6821.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-aJl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":107330,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/17\/calling-ring-billed-gull-tongue\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":0},"title":"Calling Ring-billed Gull Tongue","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Late last month I had the opportunity to take portraits of a calling Ring-billed Gull while I was looking for birds at Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling Ring-billed Gull showing its tongue, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ring-billed-gull-calling-close-up-mia-mcpherson-6024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ring-billed-gull-calling-close-up-mia-mcpherson-6024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ring-billed-gull-calling-close-up-mia-mcpherson-6024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ring-billed-gull-calling-close-up-mia-mcpherson-6024.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16979,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/11\/14\/ring-billed-gull-age-progression\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":1},"title":"Ring-billed Gull Age Progression","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In February of 2011 I wrote about the age progression of Bald Eagles along with images to illustrate the ages, today I am doing the same but with Ring-billed Gulls.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fluffy Ring-billed Gull after bathing, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34428,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/12\/23\/ring-billed-gulls-in-flight-in-varying-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":2},"title":"Ring-billed Gulls in Flight in Varying Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past week I have been able to photograph several Ring-billed Gulls in flight in varying light and like the way they turned out.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull flying in a partly cloudy sky, Farmington Bay WMA in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-9589.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-9589.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-9589.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-9589.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54426,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/10\/04\/ring-billed-gulls-i-like-photographing-them-year-round-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":3},"title":"Ring-billed Gulls – I Like Photographing Them Year Round In Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull flying over a freshwater marsh, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-6552.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-6552.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-6552.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-mia-mcpherson-6552.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":75384,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/11\/17\/you-know-you-are-a-gull-lover-when\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":4},"title":"You Know You Are A Gull Lover When…","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You take photos of ten species of birds and the twelve photos of a Ring-billed Gull in flight are the images you are the most excited to view when you get home.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Ring-billed Gull in flight on an autumn morning, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-flight-farmington-mia-mcpherson-3647.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-flight-farmington-mia-mcpherson-3647.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-flight-farmington-mia-mcpherson-3647.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-adult-flight-farmington-mia-mcpherson-3647.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108406,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/01\/urban-ring-billed-gull-adult\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":5},"title":"Urban Ring-billed Gull Adult","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I wrote that a mini-bike scared the birds at my local pond two days ago. This urban Ring-billed Gull didn't fly off. It stood its ground.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Urban Ring-billed Gull, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ring-billed-gull-on-fishing-dock-mia-mcpherson-5230.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ring-billed-gull-on-fishing-dock-mia-mcpherson-5230.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ring-billed-gull-on-fishing-dock-mia-mcpherson-5230.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/ring-billed-gull-on-fishing-dock-mia-mcpherson-5230.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}