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Common Gull, Ssp. ID - Bulgaria (1 Viewer)

Pavel

Well-known member
Hello, very pale common gull from yesterday, with amazingly orange bill and very pale iris, need your help please.
Durankulak beach, NE Bulgaria. Thanks for your comments!
 

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most probably a ssp. heinei, pavel. this winter thousends of them have showed up on western black sea coast. i fear there is not enough details to really clinch the ssp. but pale iris and bright bill plus what seems to be a p9 mirror as 'short' as black tip suggests this taxon.
 
Hello Pavel,
As you know, such a pale Iris and orange or mustard yellow bill and legs are features of ssp heinei to the DB article. Your bird has extensive streaking to the head, while the authors show birds with pure white heads. White mirror on p9 is also quite small for a ssp. canus.
Do you have pictures of the upperwing?
Lou said in another thread, that many heinei wintered in the eastern Mediterranean this winter. And I hope for smiths and Lou and others to jump in, if such an extensive streaking is ok for ssp heinei and an expert opinion about this bird
 
Hello, very pale common gull from yesterday, with amazingly orange bill and very pale iris, need your help please.
Durankulak beach, NE Bulgaria. Thanks for your comments!
An excellent shot Pavel...a great looking bird! Certainly one to look out for.👍
 
most probably a ssp. heinei, pavel. this winter thousends of them have showed up on western black sea coast. i fear there is not enough details to really clinch the ssp. but pale iris and bright bill plus what seems to be a p9 mirror as 'short' as black tip suggests this taxon.
Hi Lou/Alex

This is probably covered in DB which I don’t have access to, apart from the following:
  • Very pale iris cf dark in most canus
  • Orange/yellow bill cf green/yellow in canus
  • Mirror on p9 no larger than black tip on p10 cf to smaller black tip/larger p9 mirror on canus
  • Concentration of streaking on back of crown and nape cf more extensive in canus

What else should we be looking for here to ‘clinch’ ID - can canus really have all the combination of the above?
 
Hello Pavel,
As you know, such a pale Iris and orange or mustard yellow bill and legs are features of ssp heinei to the DB article. Your bird has extensive streaking to the head, while the authors show birds with pure white heads. White mirror on p9 is also quite small for a ssp. canus.
Do you have pictures of the upperwing?
Lou said in another thread, that many heinei wintered in the eastern Mediterranean this winter. And I hope for smiths and Lou and others to jump in, if such an extensive streaking is ok for ssp heinei and an expert opinion about this bird
Hello, thanks for all comments.
Just added the only photo I have showing the upperwing.
 
It's a smart bird. I was trying to figure out from other threads: am I right that divergence from other common gull subspecies is <= c 500,000 years?

[Not counting the American mew gull / short-billed gull forms]
 
Thanks to the picture of the upperwing Pavel! According to the DB-paper, your bird can be identified as ssp heinei with confidence by primary pattern, as Lou has already said, just adding a black spot on p4.
The only thing is for me, that the authors show heinei with pure, clean white heads with any streaking confined to the hind neck. For me the question is, how much streaking to the head is ok for an acceptable heinei (in a vagrant context, not your bird from the Black Sea).
See attached a suspected (for me sure) 2 cy heinei with a clean, white head from NE-Germany (Wusterwitzer See) from yesterday. I hope smiths, Lou or others can confirm.

2073-55444962-5781.jpg2073-55444962-2281.jpg
 
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from the birds wintering on the black sea shore i can just say that there is quite some variation in head striation. often there is striation but scarce and more concentrated on hindneck. others have almost as striated heads as nominate canus. but surely there are plenty of intergrades mixing in..
 
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