Gull ID (2 Viewers)

[robinho]

Any suggestions? Need some opinions :eat:

Thanks! Robinho :scribe:

 

[Reay_Bonxie]

Ring billed gull?

 

[robinho]

Ring billed gull?

It's either a ringed billed gull or a herring gull. My guess would be the first on, cause it seem'd like an mew, just a bit bigger. The bill is also to heavy to be a mew gull. Is it an 2nd winter ringed, or a VERY VERY small herring?

Thanks for the replie Reay_Bonxie

Robinho

 

[Frenchy]

It's either a ringed billed gull or a herring gull. My guess would be the first on, cause it seem'd like an mew, just a bit bigger. The bill is also to heavy to be a mew gull. Is it an 2nd winter ringed, or a VERY VERY small herring?

Thanks for the replie Reay_Bonxie

Robinho

Have to be honest and say this feels more like a Herring Gull. There's something about the black bill tip pattern that is not quite right for Ring-billed. It looks to me as if the black is fading on the upper mandible to leave a gonys spot. That would rule out Ring-billed and leave only Herring. Maybe wait for Jan J to pick up this thread...

 

[robinho]

It's also more likely to find an herring gull in Norway I also think the bill is more argentatus like, but the size of the gull says RBG. A small female herring could also of course be very small.

Robinho

 

[London Birder]

not a HG for me ... more like Common/RBG to my eyes from that pic and of the two I'm inclined to think it may be RBG (maybe 2w) as it looks slightly larger than the CG and possibly seeing some pale in the eye on resizing ...

usual pic caveat ..

 

[JANJ]

In the 1st pic. I see a Common Gull in the front and a Herring Gull.
The Herring Gull appears again in pic.2! The dark mark on the bill seems to cover the whole tip which it does in younger Ring-billed, meaning, that if this where a Ring.billed it would be at least in it´s 3rd cy, and would also have pale eyes, yellow/yellowish legs and paler upperparts. Finally, structure is wrong for RBG, more right for a Herring Gull.

JanJ

JanJ

 

[robinho]

Thanks JanJ

 

[London Birder]

these the only pics you got of it robinho?

 

[Gavin Haig]

Those legs look fairly pink, and the bill looks just a bit too heavy - I'm in the Herring Gull camp. Rather crude, but if you take a ruler and do some measurents on the photo with the Common Gull in it ('ankle' to 'knee' length, belly to top of head), then sit back and visualise the scene in real life, that gull at the beck is pretty big - I think perhaps too big for a Ring-billed.............

 

[Graham S]

it seem'd like an mew, just a bit bigger.

That`s what I see in the comparitive photo - Herring is a good step up in size from the medium-size gulls. I`d say it`s a Ring-billed - more robust than Common with stout bill, paler pinkish bare parts, eye turning pale, eye furrow, shade of grey looks OK, think I can just make out a pale bill tip...

 

[JANJ]

Did I forget to mention that the bill is to blunt tipped to fit a RBG, together with the mentioned characters.

http://bruunphotography.com/gulls/ring_billed.html

http://bruunphotography.com/gulls/ring_billed_2.html

JanJ

 

[robinho]

Agree with JanJ, but the size was extremly small for a herring. Sadly it disappeard before we got an opportunity to study the gull. But out of the photos i belive;

- structure: More herring than RBG. But still it is a very small gull..
- size: More RBG than herring (but again, size can be very difficult)
- bill: I can't really se why the bill is SO not RBG, but indeed in favor of herring. Maby a bit to heavy also.

Gulls can be very difficult sometimes .. assume it is an herring, but im not confident.

 

[Frenchy]

Completely agree with Jan J. On analysing the photo, nothing about it suggests Ring-billed, and everything identifies it as Herring, even the bill pattern. The size variation among Herring gulls is vast, so cannot really go on size alone on a photo like this. If it was taken in Norway, i suppose it could be a vagrant argenteus, making it look smaller than the local argentatus, but i'm not to hot on the exact distribution of the races in that part of the world...