Gull Id/phase? (1 Viewer)

[SteveClifton]

They're not big enough.

Have to disagree strongly with this point.

Don't be thrown by the apparent small size of both imm birds compared to the GBBGull, as they can be huge(and usually are in my experience). Notice also that both young gulls are further away than the GBBG, but closer than the BHGull. Even allowing for this, they are both clearly larger than the BHG, which points to them being Herring or LBBG.

Remember also, that both Herring and LBBG can be very small (some are very close to Ring-billed in size, which is itself only slightly larger than common).

I'm not going to commit either way between LBBG or Herring, though if I were pushed I'd probably opt for the former.

 

[timwootton]

all a matter of perspective

Thanks Steve - I understand perspective perfectly well. I thought I'd merge the two images together to give us some sense of scale - which is my underlying point. We have to accept that the photographs are taken from slightly different angles - BUT what we do have are direct comparisons between known species (the juv Greater Black-backed and the Herring) on the one photo and the 2 Greater Black-backs (ie. the juv and the adult, from different photos). I have used guides to make sure these two identically sized birds are standing on the same plane and are the same height - ie. they are, for all intents and purposes, the same size. The herring gull can now be directly compared with the two 'unknown' juveniles.
I'll let you make your own mind up.

 

[Steve Waite]

The two Gulls are immature Lesser Black-backs. They're wrong for Common, they are 'large Gull sp.'. And as they are a small-large Gulls, with such neat dark plumage - they are LBBG's. Compared with the adult GBBG, the size of them is bang on!

The merging of the photos doesn't work - the images aren't zoomed up the same. Compare them to the size of the Black-wits, also note that the GBBG is closer than the LBBG's.

 

[timwootton]

The two Gulls are immature Lesser Black-backs. They're wrong for Common, they are 'large Gull sp.'. And as they are a small-large Gulls, with such neat dark plumage - they are LBBG's. Compared with the adult GBBG, the size of them is bang on!

The merging of the photos doesn't work - the images aren't zoomed up the same. Compare them to the size of the Black-wits, also note that the GBBG is closer than the LBBG's.

Oh, well - there you go then. If you'd have posted this insightful and all-encompassing post two days ago, we could have all forgotten about it and not wasted the energy trying to identify such apparently easy characters.
Thanks - I've learnt a lot.