---
title: "Californische meeuw"
description: "Larus occidentalis — Vogels. The western gull (Larus occidentalis) is a large white-headed gull that lives on the west coast of North America and the Pacific Ocean."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/western-gull
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Californische meeuw

> Larus occidentalis — Vogels. The western gull (Larus occidentalis) is a large white-headed gull that lives on the west coast of North America and the Pacific Ocean.

- Scientific name: *Larus occidentalis*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `sea` (Zee en kust)
- iNaturalist observations: 81797
- Wikidata: [Q630829](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q630829)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4345](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4345)

## Names

- en: Western Gull
- de: Westmöwe
- es: Gaviota occidental
- fr: Goéland d'Audubon
- nl: Californische meeuw
- pt: Gaivota-de-pés-rosados
- pl: Mewa zachodnia

## Countries with the most observations

US (69053), MX (2735), CA (135), CR (9), NI (7), PA (6)

## Summary

The western gull (Larus occidentalis) is a large white-headed gull that lives on the west coast of North America and the Pacific Ocean. The western gull ranges from British Columbia, Canada, to Baja California, Mexico.
It was previously considered conspecific with the yellow-footed gull (Larus livens) of the Gulf of California.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_gull

## Photo

![Californische meeuw](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/western-gull/medium.jpg)

Photo: Nonbinary-Naturalist · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/315928949

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/western-gull?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).