Lesser Black-backed or Yellow-legged Gull? (1 Viewer)

lou salomon said:

there's hardly such thing as 'diagnostic' in large gulls due to their immense variation and 1cy YLG versus LBBG often cause some problem especially on ground. this bird to me looks like a LBBG with appreciable amount of replaced scapulars but otherwise very fresh plumage -which is a pointer at this time of year to separate them: YLG with more advanced and especially more worn plumage. new scaps are very recently replaced, in most YLG these already look worn by september and in many ind. some coverts also replaced already. pale head is within variation. in flight you should look for tail pattern which at this age class is the most reliable character (usually narrow black band tapering towards corners in YLG and with almost white/little marks at tail bases and uppertail coverts while ion LBBG tail band is broad with a lot of dark marks towards bases of tail feathers.

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