North Yorkshire, Staveley Nature Reserve (1 Viewer)

[pjacobs]

Hello,

I was hoping someone can help me out with this ID (if possible). I was at Staveley this morning and snapped this photo, which at a very cursory first glance appeared to be a Red Kite. Red Kites are very common here and this bird seemed to be behaving like one. It was circling, quite high up, without any wing flaps. The wings had the sharp angles of the Red Kite as well, although the tail wasn't forked. On closer inspection however, it appeared light-coloured with a darker head, almost gull like, but it was far too large to be a black-headed gull.

Any ideas?

 

[Earnest lad]

I am more inclined to think it is a gull such as Herring Gull or similar

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello welcome to birdforum!
No, you should have stucked to your first impression: its an adult Black-headed Gull. Its moulting the inner primaries, hence the kinked look of the wing.
It is also not a slightly larger 3 cy Mediteranean Gull. Although not easy to judge, I think the real black head with different shaped hood and shining white underwing with just variable black markings in the outer primaries should be seen.

 

[Butty]

Agree with Alex. Thus, despite the impression you got, it was in fact the size of a black-headed gull. Judging the size of a lone bird is notoriously unreliable.

 

[pjacobs]

Thanks everyone. Once I account for the fact that I misjudged the size, black-headed gull makes sense.