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White winged gull, but which one? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter T. Keith Bruce
- Start date
M Cowming
Well-known member
Hi Keith,
This bird is an adult Iceland Gull. The primaries do appear a bit "brown/grey" rather than pure white so I'm not sure if this one falls under the Kumlien's Gull range. However, the bird can be aged by the bill pattern which is essentially 3-toned, greenish base, yellowish tip and red gonydeal angle. A second or third winter bird would show a more greenish tinged bill with a black ring near the tip.
In comparison, an Adult Glaucous would show a more uniform yellowish bill with the red gonydeal angle, not to mention appearing bigger.
Regards,
This bird is an adult Iceland Gull. The primaries do appear a bit "brown/grey" rather than pure white so I'm not sure if this one falls under the Kumlien's Gull range. However, the bird can be aged by the bill pattern which is essentially 3-toned, greenish base, yellowish tip and red gonydeal angle. A second or third winter bird would show a more greenish tinged bill with a black ring near the tip.
In comparison, an Adult Glaucous would show a more uniform yellowish bill with the red gonydeal angle, not to mention appearing bigger.
Regards,
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Agree with Iceland on this one; like MC, I'd suspect it could be Kumlien's race given the grey on the primaries, tho' not definitely so
Jane Turner
Well-known member
The primary projection is a good indicator of Iceland too. I wave a big white flag on the race though
I think I saw this bird when I was in Fraserburgh the other weekend. It looked to me like a third winter nominate Iceland, although I never saw it properly on the deck. It looks a bit dark in the primaries but maybe not dark enough for Kumlien's. Interesting bird though - I think this was the first Iceland of this age I've ever seen.
Interesting question - as I said, I'm not too familiar with Iceland's of either 3rd or 4th winter. I just checked in Beaman and Madge and they say that 3rd winter should show a dark subterminal band but then in the illustration of 3rd winter Iceland, this is more-or-less invisible! I would say that, assuming this is the same bird I saw, it's very obviously brownish on the primaries and primary coverts, which would seem to indicate an immature bird of some sort.
T. Keith Bruce
Keen Photographer and Bird Novice.
My thanks to one and all for your observations and comments. Excellent sites mentioned in other Q/A's re the Kumliens, so I'll keep them bookmarked for future observations. Got some more pics at the w/e but nothing that anyone hasn't seen before, apart from this one with two guys together.
Attachments
Another nice picture Keith - both look like Glaucous Gulls. I'm quite struck by how the rear bird appears noticeably smaller than the bird at the front. There's often quite striking size variations between the sexes in the larger gulls.
T. Keith Bruce
Keen Photographer and Bird Novice.
In reality Andrew, they both were roughly the same size. The glaucous in the foreground looks bigger, possibly because it was sitting and the other standing. The biggest difference I noticed was the size of the eye, but then again, the nearest may have just finished 40 winks.
