Id Help - Mumbai, India - 10 (1 Viewer)

[mihir]

Request id help for these birds photographed near Manori, Mumbai on 28th August 2024

1) & 2) Lesser black-backed gull?
3) Lesser black-backed gull?
4) & 5) Paddyfield Pipit?
6) Paddyfield Pipit?
7

 

[Cornish mouse]

I'm only a beginner so I can't be sure on these but I think 7 is a Saunders tern. Lovely pic btw. I don't know about the others sea birds are hard!

 

[leifvester]

Picture Bird is saying Yellow Legged Gulls, and I think that could be reasonable.

I would be confident in ruling out lesser black-backed because the back is too light, but also the primaries aren't right. On LBB the black on the wing tips goes a little further up the wing.

 

[THE_FERN]

Picture Bird is saying Yellow Legged Gulls, and I think that could be reasonable.

I would be confident in ruling out lesser black-backed because the back is too light, but also the primaries aren't right. On LBB the black on the wing tips goes a little further up the wing.

Should not be in Mumbai (out of range)

 

[leifvester]

Should not be in Mumbai (out of range)

Its not a caspian gull by any chance? Interested to know if someone can figure it out

 

[johnallcock]

I'm not a gull expert, but I think the most likely white-headed taxa in Mumbai should be heuglini and barabensis. Both are currently treated as part of Lesser Black-backed Gull. Given that the 2nd and 3rd pictures look fairly pale above, maybe barabensis? But there's more than one bird here, so they might not all be the same. The wing pattern may be useful for an expert to comment.

The pipits look like Paddyfield I think.

For the terns, the one on the right looks like Common to me, from structure and head pattern. But the one on the left is slightly different and I'm not sure if it's another Common or a different species.

This is a really difficult set of photos, all with difficult species groups to ID. That may be the reason that there haven't been many responses so far!

 

[leifvester]

I'm not a gull expert, but I think the most likely white-headed taxa in Mumbai should be heuglini and barabensis. Both are currently treated as part of Lesser Black-backed Gull. Given that the 2nd and 3rd pictures look fairly pale above, maybe barabensis? But there's more than one bird here, so they might not all be the same. The wing pattern may be useful for an expert to comment.

The pipits look like Paddyfield I think.

For the terns, the one on the right looks like Common to me, from structure and head pattern. But the one on the left is slightly different and I'm not sure if it's another Common or a different species.

This is a really difficult set of photos, all with difficult species groups to ID. That may be the reason that there haven't been many responses so far!

I'm a gull novice myself, but my understanding of Lesser black-backed gulls is that the Graellsii sub-species has the lightest shade of grey saddle, and is still darker than the birds in these photos, in addition to the primaries not looking quite right imo.

 

[lou salomon]

I'm a gull novice myself, but my understanding of Lesser black-backed gulls is that the Graellsii sub-species has the lightest shade of grey saddle, and is still darker than the birds in these photos, in addition to the primaries not looking quite right imo.

didn't you read John's comment? On current taxonomy Larus (fuscus) barabensis is part of the LBBG-complex even though it is paler than graellsii or heuglini. It's sort of an unsolved taxonomic problem. Genetically Steppe Gulls don't differ to Heuglin's Gulls, that's why they have been put under the taxon fuscus. It is suggested that they have evolved as hybrids of heuglini x cachinnans, thus K.M. Olsen had put them under cachinnans back in 2003.
I also think all the large gulls in the OP are Steppe Gulls. And to me both terns look good for Common Tern, same structure etc.

 

[leifvester]

didn't you read John's comment? On current taxonomy Larus (fuscus) barabensis is part of the LBBG-complex even though it is paler than graellsii or heuglini. It's sort of an unsolved taxonomic problem. Genetically Steppe Gulls don't differ to Heuglin's Gulls, that's why they have been put under the taxon fuscus. It is suggested that they have evolved as hybrids of heuglini x cachinnans, thus K.M. Olsen had put them under cachinnans back in 2003.
I also think all the large gulls in the OP are Steppe Gulls. And to me both terns look good for Common Tern, same structure etc.

Ah I had, but got confused by some out of date info online.
Cool to know!

 

[leifvester]

I know I keep mentioning the primaries, but they don't seem to match those of the Steppe gull in this blog: “Steppe Gull” – birdfinding.info

In that blog the primaries of the Steppe gull look like what I would expect in the local LBBs that I see.

Is it just the case that primary feathers aren't a reliable ID feature?