Utah Symbols, State Bird & State Flower

Adopted on February 14, 1955.

The California gull (Larus californicus) became the official state bird on February 14, 1955, when House Bill 51 was signed into law by Gov. J Bracken Lee (Utah Code 63-13-9). The bill was introduced by Richard C. Howe a member of the House of Representatives.

The gull was first protected under Utah law because it is an insectivorous bird (feeds on insects). It was protected along with the owl, hawk, lark, whippoorwill, thrush, swallow, snowbird, and any other insectivorous or song birds. The California gull was chosen as the state bird because it was credited with saving the pioneer's crops from complete destruction in the summer of 1848.

Chiefly found in the interior regions, the California gull breeds on inland lakes from Canada south to Mono Lake, California, Great Salt Lake, and Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming. It winters along the Pacific Coast and inland in Utah, Oregon, and California. The mature California gull measures from twenty to twenty-three inches in length and has greenish yellow feet, a medium gray mantle, and a bill with an orange spot near the tip of the lower mandible. The outer primaries are black, tipped with white, the first two with subterminal white spots.

The gull is about two feet long. The color of this bird is pearly-blue. It is sometimes barred or streaked with blackish gray. Aeronautic wizards, gulls are gymnasts of the sky, making the seemingly impossible appear effortless. They can appear motionless in midair by catching wind currents with perfect timing and precision while positioning their bodies at just the right angle. They are quiet birds, considered quite beneficial by agriculturalists, and are usually gentle creatures, exhibiting neither antagonism to nor fondness for man.

Identification

• Length: 17 inches Wingspan: 52 inches
• Medium-sized gull
• Fairly large bill with distinct gonydeal angle
• Fairly rounded forehead and smaller bill give more "gentle" appearance than Herring Gull

Adult alternate

• Bright yellow bill with complete black ring distal to red spot at gonys
• Bright yellow legs
• Brown eye
• White head, neck, breast, and belly
• Gray back and upperwings
• White tertial crescent
• Black primaries with white tips and two white mirrors on outer primaries

Adult basic

• Like adult alternate but blurry brown streaking and spotting on head and nape

Juvenile/First-year

• Black bill quickly developing pale pink base
• Wholly brown body plumage
• Dark brown primaries
• Dark brown secondaries and greater secondary coverts appears as double dark bar on trailing edge of wing in flight
• Black legs quickly become pink
• Dark outer primaries
• Dark tail
• Pale rump marked with bark bars and appears dark

Second-year

• Green-yellow bill with black tip
• Pale head, neck, upper breast, and belly with brown streaking
• Dull brown upperwing coverts
• Dark brown primaries and tail
• Gray back
• White tail with dark terminal band

Third-year

• Like adult basic, but often lacks adult bill pattern, wing pattern, and often retains a partial tail band

Adopted on March 18, 1911.

The sego lily (Calochortus nuttallii) was made the official state flower of Utah on March 18, 1911, when Senate Bill 225 was signed into law by Gov. William Spry (Utah Code 63-13-6). The bill was introduced by William N. Williams, according to Heart Throbs of the West (2:226), after a census was taken of the state's schoolchildren as to their preference for a state flower.

The sego lily grows six to eight inches high on open grass and sage rangelands in the Great Basin during the summer months. This member of the mariposa family typifies the lilies, with sepals, petals and stamens in the combinations of three with ivory-colored petals which may be tinted from yellow to pink. A horizontal bar of darker color crosses the base of each petal within the flower cup.

The flower is important to Utah not only for its beauty but because the bulbs were eaten by the early Mormon settlers during their first winter in the valley when food was scarce. The bulb, which is walnut-sized, was also eaten by the Indians before the Mormon settlers turned to it for sustenance and serves today as food for rodents and other animals.