YLGs/CGs?, Bulgaria! (1 Viewer)

[Collin]

Hello,

Can you help me again?
What do you think - michahellis or cachinnans /note the posture/?

Thanks.

 

[Collin]

Five more pics:

 

[mäkpe]

Yellow-legged and Black-headed Gulls.

 

[lou salomon]

i'd agree with mäkpe, can't detect any cachinnans in these pics, eventually YLG can stand quite upright too. notice in the last pic the small amount of black on p8 (apparently p7 being the outermost fully grown one, p8 not yet fully grown, p9 just visible, p10 missing), typical of eastern michahellis, western types on average have more black even on p8.

 

[Collin]

Thank you, mäkpe and lou salomon,

But, can you see, that the flying birds are with less black on wing tips, even some have well defined pale /grey/ "tongues" into them?

 

[lou salomon]

that's what i tried to express with my previous post, colin. beware that black in wingtip is reduced now because the outer primaries are shed or growing. the mostly black p9 and p10 are not there. this serves for the little-black-much-white-impression, valid for all large gulls with black tips when they moult their outer primaries. p6-p8 are not relevant for upperwing tongues while the shed/growing p9 and p10 are! other features like general structure, head size and shape, bill shape, bright yellow legs, pale irides etc. help to ID these as YLG.

cheers

 

[Collin]

I see. Thanks for the help, lou salomon!

 

[steve west]

To my knowledge YLG is much more common than Caspian in Bulgaria, so it's the gull you should expect. Last June we searched and managed to find one Caspian Gull among dozens of YLs.

Steve

 

[Collin]

Probably, Steve. Don`t have any records in the central part of the country yet, but I don`t know how is the situation along the Black Sea coast and Danube river.

To my knowledge YLG is much more common than Caspian in Bulgaria, so it's the gull you should expect. Last June we searched and managed to find one Caspian Gull among dozens of YLs.

Steve

 

[lou salomon]

caspian is a regular migrant in good numbers at this time of year at the coast and on lower danube, but it is surprisingly hard to find among local YLG. they use to roost at certain lagunes at the coast or large lakes in good numbers while YLG can be found anywhere in suitable habitat.

 

[Collin]

I see, Lou. I`m afraid that here, in my area, we don`t have any suitable habitats for large numbers of gulls, just 1-2 big reservoirs and one big landfill, which I will check soon.

caspian is a regular migrant in good numbers at this time of year at the coast and on lower danube, but it is surprisingly hard to find among local YLG. they use to roost at certain lagunes at the coast or large lakes in good numbers while YLG can be found anywhere in suitable habitat.