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Utah State Bird

Utah State Bird: California Gull (Larus californicus)

Adoption of the Utah State Bird

The California gull, even without official status, was long considered the state bird of Utah due to its storied role as a protector of crops. It gained this reputation during the summer of 1848 when swarms of crickets attacked pioneer food supplies. It was reported that flocks of the birds arrived, settled in the "...half-ruined fields" and "gorged themselves" on the attacking crickets. It's often stated that the California gull was made the state bird in return for saving the settler's lives.

It was a long way from 1848 but, over 100 years later, a bill was introduced in the Utah House of Representatives by Richard C. Howe promoting the California gull as the official state bird. The bill was approved by the Utah Legislature and Governor J. Bracken Lee signed the legislation adopting the California gull as the official state bird on February 14, 1955.

We are puzzled by the lack of consistency between the statute that identifies the state bird as a "sea gull" and the Utah web site that consistently identifies the state bird as a California gull.

Shearer, in his 2002 edition of State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols, displays a similar inconsistency by referring to the state bird as a "sea gull" and citing it as Larus californicus.

Shankle is consistent. In his 1934 book, he refers to the "unofficial at the time" state bird as Larus californicus, the California gull.

Perhaps the 1955 legislature simply thought, "If it looks like a sea gull, walks like a sea gull and flies like a sea gull, it must be a sea gull?"

About the Utah State Bird

Saving the Crops

George Earlie Shankle wrote in 1934, twenty years before the California gull was officially adopted as the state bird of Utah,

"The gull is considered the state bird of Utah by common consent, probably in commemoration of the fact that these gulls saved the people of the State by eating up the Rocky mountain crickets which were destroying the crops in 1848."

Orson F. Whitney says that in the midst of the devastation of the crickets,

"when it seemed that nothing could stay the devastation, great flocks of gulls appeared, filling the air with their white wings and plaintive cries, and settled down upon the half-ruined fields. fields. All day long they gorged themselves, and when full, disgorged and feasted again, the white gulls upon the black crickets, list hosts of heaven and hell contending, until the pests were vanquished and the people were saved."

After devouring the crickets, the gulls returned

"to the lake islands whence they came."
History of Utah, Comprising Preliminary...etc., by Orson F. Whitney, George Q Cannon and Sons Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1892

The Utah Code

The following information is excerpted from the Utah Code, Title 63, Chapter 13, Section 63-13-5.5. All of Utah's state symbols are listed in section 63-13-5.5. Below, wehave only listed the entry regarding the official state bird.