• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Gull, Manchester UK (1 Viewer)

stevethehydra

Well-known member
Seen on Christmas Eve in Birchfields Park, south Manchester. Photos taken on maximum zoom at a pretty long distance.

It stood out at first glance because it looked more like a Common Gull than a Black-headed to me on structure and mantle colour, but appeared to have a red bill.

In the photos the bill colour is more ambiguous, but I'm struck by the dark markings on the head and neck, which seem to show up a lot more in some of the photos than others - including both a shadow of a BHG-style "ear spot" and a thick streaky "collar".

There were no other small gulls near enough for size comparison, but it was clearly smaller, and marginally darker-mantled, than a Herring Gull that was a bit further away.

Just an odd Common Gull, or ???
 

Attachments

  • DSC04035.JPG
    7.9 MB · Views: 94
  • DSC04044.JPG
    7.5 MB · Views: 80
  • DSC04043.JPG
    8.1 MB · Views: 55
  • DSC04042.JPG
    7.7 MB · Views: 54
  • DSC04039.JPG
    7.9 MB · Views: 49
  • DSC04036.JPG
    7.5 MB · Views: 34
Hello Steve,

what an interesting bird! Tfs

I agree with you, this surely must be a Common Gull. Adding to your ID from the field, the white frame around one primary is also a feature of some Common Gulls against larger Gulls (?). And the broad white tertial crescent too?

According to the DB paper, some kamtschatschensis can have some orange hues on the bill: "Also, the gonys can look slightly more orange than the rest of the bill, as if the bird has ambitions to be a large gull." I hope its ok to copy the staatement from https://gull-research.org/papers/papers9/gulls_CommonGulls_identification_Adriaens&Gibbins2016.pdf
And the smeared clouded head-pattern also looks unusual for a Common Gull to me.
(I am not so sure about the bill colour: it looks some kind of ill, impression of a weak bird with a fleshy tinge on my screen)

Yes, this came into my mind: I hope your Gull is refound, is either a kamtschatschensis or a Short-billed Gull, andhas a distinctive primary pattern that can be documented with open wing shots.
And I hope for more comments as always! Thanks Lou, Smiths and all
 
Thanks! I know nothing about "eastern" subspecies of Common Gull. Kind of expected the answer to be "oh, that's normal for x transitional plumage"...

I thought of Mediterranean Gull at the time, but obviously the wingtips rule that out. (And wondered if hybrids had been recorded between any combination of BHG, Common and Med...) But looking again at the photos, I wonder if my impression of a "red" bill can be explained by soil or staining on it?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top