Young Gulls, Northern Seward Peninsula, AK (1 Viewer)

I'll ask for your thoughts on these guys. The first three are the same individual and I believe the same species as some in the 4th. In the 5th I am thinking this might be a sub adult Slaty-backed Gull. And yes the gulls are on a young dead whale. And for any of you that have seen the video, know we are not planning on blowing it up like on the Oregon coast in the 70's (can see it on YouTube).

In the 4th the bird in the front is a Black-legged Kittiwake, the next three I am not sure about. There is a Glaucous Gull on the far right and some very pale juvenile Glaucous Gulls mixed in.

I can zoom in on individual birds if needed.

The Alcid experts must be hard at work. I was surprised to not see a few replies this morning. In the fourth photo I am interested in the two birds in the center behind what I believe is a juvenile Herring Gull. Are they just 1cy GLGU's? I had thought the bird bending over on the right had black wing tips but on further inspection the dark colors are part of the ground and not on the wing tips.

The juvenile in the three first images is most probably not an American Herring by tail pattern. Primary projection seems short, but that might be due to the way it holds it´s wing? Difficult to see the greater covert pattern in detail but in image 2 & 3 in flight the greater coverts looks dark based with paler tips, just like American Herring but also would fit Slaty-backed. However young Slaty-backed usually has an all, or nearly all dark tail and paler outer primaries, creating a less contrast with pale inners and with more of dark outer webs and pale inner web creating dark and pale lines (some variation on this part though), which doesn´t seem to be the case in your gull. The inner primary pattern in your gull is more in line with American or Vega Gull - more diffuse inner part with pronounced dark spots at the tips. Weak bill and structure doesn´t favour Slaty-backed - although feemales approach this structure - so we can´t judge for sure from your standing gull. It might be a Slaty-backed but I´ll rather suggest Vega over SBG.The possibilities of a AHG with a different tail pattern is also possible, but...

http://www23.tok2.com/home/jgull/061101/slaty.htm

http://www23.tok2.com/home/jgull/041015/sbg_1.html

http://www23.tok2.com/home/jgull/071222/vegagull.htm

Note greater covert, inner primaries and tail pattern in these:

http://www23.tok2.com/home/jgull/061101/vegagull.htm

The second cycle type last gull looks good for Slaty-backed.

I´ll let Gentoo thae care of the Glaucous Gulls and the one in the middle behind the Kittiwake.

JanJ

Thank you JanJ, a friend suggested that the two behind the Kittiwake and Herring Gull could be a "Nelson's Gull" (Herring x Glaucous). Don't know if I want to even consider that too much.

shishmarefbirder said:

Thank you JanJ, a friend suggested that the two behind the Kittiwake and Herring Gull could be a "Nelson's Gull" (Herring x Glaucous). Don't know if I want to even consider that too much.

Click to expand...

I'm not very sure, but the one behind the kittiwake (the "Herring Gull") seems like the best candidate for Nelson's. The bird seems a bit smaller than all the Glaucous Gulls, but it's got the characteristic Glaucous Gull beak and fairly light primaries. The two behind I took as darker juvenile Glaucous.

I'm leaning towards juvenile Vega for the Herring Gull and I'm in line with JanJ for the reasons mentioned.

I think the one behind the Kittiwake looks ok for Nelson's Gull, possibly. This area of Alaska is a dangerous area for gull identification. Looking at it, even in these dark photos (nothing bad meant to the photographer), you can make out it's overall gray tone, darker than the nearby Glaucous Gulls. Two hybrids are possible in this area; the first would be the one I call the "Nome" Gull, that is, hybrid GWGxGLGU. The wing tips are paler than the rest of the wing as would be expected on such a hybrid. However, the plumage shows a lot of contrast, too much so IMO for any GWGU in it. You can clearly make out a pattern on the scapulars and wing coverts even in this photo. Glaucous-Winged Gull hybrids, whether they are with Western, Herring or Glaucous almost always show a much more defuse pattern, sometimes almost completely absent. Olympic Gull of course would not occur in this area and has a different appearance altogether. "Kodiak" Gull (another name I made up for GWGUxHEGU), also would not occur in this area.

The other possibility would be Nelson's Gull. The subject bird seems to show characteristics of Nelson's. The darker overall plumage, smaller size than the nearby Glaucous Gulls but with a similar structure and that pattern I mentioned on the wings and scapulars. It has the bi-colored bill of GLGU but if you look closely, the black tip appears to be a bit more extensive than the nearby GLGU's. Nelson's Gull is what I would call this at least for now. It was nice to have the Glaucous Gulls nearby for comparison.

I agree with JanJ on the Slaty-Backed.

Gentoo, you can be a critic of my photography all you want. Inexpensive 300 x lens and no photography education. I try to get a good enough shot to id myself or get help here. I wish I could trade my color blind eyes for good ones and then maybe my abilities could get stronger. Didn't help that I took the photo at 10:30 PM, we are no longer the land of the midnight sun unfortunately. Work and family are limiting my time studying birds and now is the time. I would have missed a flock of 20 Sanderlings if I hadn't gone out that night and winds may blow interesting migrating birds in from who knows where.

After your comments on the gull behind the BLKI, I submitted the photo to a friend who studies birds in Barrow and he too thought the bird was very interesting and commented that he wished the photograph be of better quality to really give it some more diagnosis. I will see what I can do this weekend and hopefully come back with a better photo.

I have identified four main gulls in the area Sabine's, Glaucous, Herring, and a Glaucous-winged. Better optics and better camera might certainly help me.