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All immature Great Black-backed Gulls? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Chris in France
- Start date
Joern Lehmhus
Well-known member
They look like Lesser Blackbacked gulls to me , all different stagesChris in France said:
The immatures look slender and longwinged,some have already the grey mantle ,which is much too light for GBBG,and the adult in the photo also has the typical jizz coloration of wings and mantle of LBBG as well as the yellowish feet of LBBG (GBBG would have pinkish-flesh colored legs)
hope this helps,
Jörn
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Chris in France
Well-known member
Joern Lehmhus said:
Thanks, Joern. I thought the legs were pink in colour, rather than yellow and that's why I opted for pre-adult GBBG. I took this photo of a mature bird - GBBG I believed at the time - but since the photo was taken in the same area as the previous photo I'm now beginning to wonder if I'm wrong on this one, too. Gulls are definitely not my forté!
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Steven Astley
Well-known member
It's easy chris, for adult gulls
yellow legs = lesser black backed
pink legs = great black backed
If you remember this you cannot go far wrong next time you see a dark winged gull. There are exceptions to the rule, but it's rare. Read your guide, observe and you will start to notice the more subtle differences
yellow legs = lesser black backed
pink legs = great black backed
If you remember this you cannot go far wrong next time you see a dark winged gull. There are exceptions to the rule, but it's rare. Read your guide, observe and you will start to notice the more subtle differences
Chris in France
Well-known member
Thanks Steven and Jan for your helpful comments, which are much appreciated. I'm still not 100% clear on this because of the leg colour of my birds being (to me) pink and not yellow. However, Steven, I hope you don't mind but I'm sending a PM to you for clarification of this one remaining point.
Joern Lehmhus
Well-known member
Hi Chris, fully adult LBBG = Yellow legs , immatures with fleshcoloured-pinkish legs
(sometimes in winter, sometimes also in injured birds the colour can fade to pinkish-yellow)
(most, if not all big gull species with yellow legs as adult have flesh colored -pinkish legs as immatures)
GBBG , Herring gull , Glaucus gull and some others have fleshcoloured-pinkish legs as immatures and adults...
Hope that´s what you wanted to know
(sometimes in winter, sometimes also in injured birds the colour can fade to pinkish-yellow)
(most, if not all big gull species with yellow legs as adult have flesh colored -pinkish legs as immatures)
GBBG , Herring gull , Glaucus gull and some others have fleshcoloured-pinkish legs as immatures and adults...
Hope that´s what you wanted to know
Chris in France
Well-known member
Joern Lehmhus said:
Thanks, Joern, for clarifying the leg colour situation for me and I now understand that some LBBGs have pinkish legs. Steven, please ignore my PM to you since I have the answer I was looking for. Thanks a bunch for your earlier help.
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Joern Lehmhus
Well-known member
Chris, perception of colour in legs of big gulls can be quite difficult--usually the colour is clearly yellow to me for adult LBBG and I think most other people would agree there . For example the single adult in your second picture has yellow legs in my eyes. The adult on the ground , facing upwards,on your first picture has also yellow legs in my eyes (however they have a very slight pinkish touch to me).
A few people might see these legs as yellowish -pink.
Another thing to be taken into account concerning gull legs is that the colours on photos can look slightly different than you see them in the field. Once I have photographed an "omissus"-Type herring gull,for example, which had clearly yellow legs in the field and on the photograph they look pale orange. Odd that-all other colours on the photo seemed all right.
A few people might see these legs as yellowish -pink.
Another thing to be taken into account concerning gull legs is that the colours on photos can look slightly different than you see them in the field. Once I have photographed an "omissus"-Type herring gull,for example, which had clearly yellow legs in the field and on the photograph they look pale orange. Odd that-all other colours on the photo seemed all right.
