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Lesser black-backed gull? (1 Viewer)

reg

Active member
i was out for a walk at the sea yesterday (NE scotland , just above aberdeen) and saw what i think was a Lesser black-backed gull. it had very yellow feet and was about the right size compared to all the herring gulls and the odd great black-backed gull around it. But it's wings were as black nearly as a great black-backed gull. in my little bird book it talks about a NW europe race having darker wings than the UK one. does anyone think it might have been one of those? do we get them over here?
 
Hi Reg,
At one of the sightings websites for yesterday, there was a report of Larus fuscus fuscus at Nosterfield, Northumberland. The key feature is the TRUE black wings, like the colour of the Great Black-backed Gull. The usual race in this country is Larus fuscus graellsi but there is one in between and is called 'intermedius' if my memory serves me correctly.


Colin
 
thanks for the reply Colin. the wings did look very dark and it was quite hard to tell any difference to the great black-backs that were quite close to it. i'm pretty new to birdwatching so i could not say for sure. all quite interesting though :)
 
I think that your bird was almost certainly a Lesser Black-backed Gull of the race intermedius,which can approach fuscus in darkness of the upperparts.Fuscus is likely to be very rare in western Europe,whereas intermedius is a regular visitor to the east coast of Britain in particular.
 
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