Large Gulls ID Help, China. Part 2 (1 Viewer)

[xuky.summer]

I recorded these gulls in February at Qingdao, Shandong province, please give me some advice. I'm sorry for the large number, thank you very much!

1 2 same bird, a pale Slaty-backed Gull?
3 4 same bird, a pale Vega Gull? The typical Mongolian gull is very worn in this period, and dark tail-bar narrow.
5 6 same bird, a worn taimyrensis? heavily notched Greater coverts like Vega, but darker inner primaries

 

[xuky.summer]

7 8 same bird, a pale taimyrensis? Greater coverts Uniform dark base and pale terminal area forming clear bar and without any notch.
9 10 same bird, a Vega Gull without heavily notched greater coverts? pp looks very short.

 

[xuky.summer]

11 12 same bird, a mongolicus with very dark wing coverts?
13 14 same bird, a Vega Gull with dark inner primaries?
15 16 same bird, a Vega Gull?

 

[xuky.summer]

17 18 same bird, a pale taimyrensis? looks slimmer, dark inner primaries and longer pp, but notched greater coverts like a Vega
19 20 same bird, a Vega Gull?

 

[SteveMM]

17 18 same bird, a pale taimyrensis? looks slimmer, dark inner primaries and longer pp, but notched greater coverts like a Vega
19 20 same bird, a Vega Gull?

Hi xuky,

I'm looking at much the same set of birds in Taiwan and struggling with them TBH! That said, I agree with all your IDs except for the first one, which I think is a dark-looking Vega Gull. I find Slaty-backed Gulls bleach quite evenly, and have brown primaries if they are bleaching elsewhere. Birds I think are Vega Gulls bleach quite extensively through the greater coverts but remain patterned elsewhere.

Steve

 

[balex78]

11-12 I'm not sure it's a mongolicus...I would expect much more White throughout the coverts, which should appear bleached , a cleaner White head and a stronger bill. Do you have better shots of the uppertail?
Maybe another vega?

 

[xuky.summer]

Thank you very much!
Steve, I do think first one is very like Vega gull, I saw many similar individuals in this Japanese website, but the upperparts of them have obvious barred pattern , this one looks more plain, I think it may be more common on Slaty-backed Gull?
balex78, I have other images of 11-12

 

[SteveMM]

Thank you very much!
Steve, I do think first one is very like Vega gull, I saw many similar individuals in this Japanese website, but the upperparts of them have obvious barred pattern , this one looks more plain, I think it may be more common on Slaty-backed Gull?
balex78, I have other images of 11-12

Hi xuky,

I still think I prefer Vega Gull. Some of the Vega here: http://gull-research.org/smithsonianus/4cymarch.html (scroll down) are replacing scapulars with plainer-looking feathers. I think your bird also looks long legged for Slaty-backed, with perhaps too much barring at the base of the outer tail feathers and weak 'string of pearls' (rather than wholly pale inner webs) through the outer primaries.

I still think mongolicus for #11-12 BTW.

Steve

 

[balex78]

about bird 11-12 , if you want you can publish it on Facebook on the Western Palearctic Gulls Group. You will get more opinions and answers

 

[JANJ]

If we look at the tail pattern in pic 11 &12 it doesen´t show the idea of how the pattern would look like in mongolicus. One should be careful when identifying - in this case 1cycle vegae and mongolicus since some vegae can look quite pale at this time of year and therefore may be more difficult to identify for sure. All gulls vary. However, the tail pattern together with other features, such as these:http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/viewthread.php?tid=9793&extra=page=5&filter=type&typeid=23 should narrow the identification down to mongolicus.
Also these:http://gulls.tistory.com/category/SPECIES/한국재갈매기(Mongolian Gull)

JanJ