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Bonaparte Gulls? (1 Viewer)

gavlanes

Gavilanes
These pictures were taken from Gabriola Island, BC, an island just east of Vancouver Island Canada. My neighbor and I are thinking Bonaparte Gulls, the white on the leading edge of the wings. The middle bird in the first picture I think is a Thayer's Gull, the others are the suspected Bonaparte Gulls. You will notice a little black on trailing edge of the wings as well. The legs are pink as well. Unfortunately we could not see the dark ear spot.
 

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Isn't the other bird in the first image a Ring billed gull? Much more numerous than Thayer's in BC in my experience.
 
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pink legs

sure has to be - also on size and structure.

I got some more photos today, they have been bothering the sea lions outside my place, the dark pink legs are clearly shown, less so in the first pictures that I posted. Now I am going back and forth on Thayer vs Iceland,
 

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The bird in the first image is still a RBG - as Lou has already stated this can be judged on size alone, but the extent of black in the primaries as well as what can be seen of the apical spots also rules out Thayer's.
Second image shows Thayer's and what is probably a 1cy California gull on the far left. Not sure about the bird closest to the seal (possibly another California) and you'd need better images of the other 1w bird as well as the top left adult which clearly show the primaries to accurately identify the bird - that said, I'm no expert on gulls, so perhaps Lou could chip in.
 
agree with daniel in mosts respects. i'd go so far to call all adult types here thayer's gulls (still prefer this name and not 'thayer's iceland' as it would be correct now), including the upper left one - you just can't see its black in wingtip but i'd be heistant to ID any of the young ones. even far left could be a smallish 2nd cycle olympic gull although david's suggestion with california gull is probably right.
 
agree with daniel in mosts respects. i'd go so far to call all adult types here thayer's gulls (still prefer this name and not 'thayer's iceland' as it would be correct now), including the upper left one - you just can't see its black in wingtip but i'd be heistant to ID any of the young ones. even far left could be a smallish 2nd cycle olympic gull although david's suggestion with california gull is probably right.


I have attached three more photos of those gulls mobbing that sea lion, all were taken at the same time as the second photo (the one with the sea lion). My neighbor and I have been trying to figure out what we have. She is doing a bird survey for some study. This discussion has motivated us to really get to know our gulls. Any further help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all
 

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I think the first photo has Mew and Bonparte's Gull. Mew is more common on the immediate coast than RBGU.

The other photos look like mostly Olympic Gulls (Glaucous-winged x Western), maybe with some pure GWGU in there. It would be unusual to have so many adult Thayer's together.
 
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