Juvenile large gull, Flamborough, England, 17 July 2022 (1 Viewer)

[Brett Richards]

This juv gull seems to show mixed characters. I would appreciate others' opinions.

Cheers

Brett

 

[lou salomon]

looks like a YLG with the caveat that some graellsii LBBG can have this amount of pale on inner webs to inner primaries. bill is not ideal for YLG though and the 'real' tail pattern hard to discern due to blur and strong light. markings to outer tail feathers might be obscured. so, either YLG or LBBG, really hard to decide in such a pale individual.

 

[Brett Richards]

looks like a YLG with the caveat that some graellsii LBBG can have this amount of pale on inner webs to inner primaries. bill is not ideal for YLG though and the 'real' tail pattern hard to discern due to blur and tsrong light. markings to outer tail fethers might be obscured. so, either YLG or LBBG, really hard to decide in such a pale individual.

Thanks Lou

After downloading the photos I was thinking along the lines of maybe Caspian x Yellow-legged hybrid, but I didn't think Caspian in the field. I just couldn't figure it out.

Brett

 

[lou salomon]

Caspian x Yellow-legged hybrid

Brett

that's among the rarest hybrid combinations between large gulls in Europe. if tail corners really showed that much white I'd exclude any Caspian involvement.

 

[Brett Richards]

that's among the rarest hybrid combinations between large gulls in Europe. if tail corners really showed that much white I'd exclude any Caspian involvement.

OK, thanks Lou.
Brett