ML132924341
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
This was a small to medium-sized gull that, when perched, seemed to be a little larger than the Rock Pigeons that cluttered the pier. The bill was proportionately long, in that it would have extended backward on the face to at least the rear edge of the auriculars, if not slightly further. In addition to being long, the bill was slim throughout its length and with a culmen that was straight for most of its length before curving downward to a pointed tip. The forehead sloped relatively steeply upward to a rounded junction with the crown, and in general, the head was smoothly rounded. I thought the neck was less conspicuous than it is on some gulls, and the body was plump, but the wings were moderately long, which gave this bird a somewhat horizontal posture that was accentuated by the notably short legs. This bird had a buoyant flight with shallow wing-beats on wings that bent downward. The relatively slim wings also tapered to pointed tips. I never saw the tail when this bird was standing, but when it was in flight, I could see clearly that the tail was short and squared-off at the tip. I estimated that the tail extended backward behind the trailing edges of the wings a distance that was roughly comparable to the width of the wings at their bases. I thought the feet were webbed, but I did not note their structure more closely. Typical of most nearly adult gulls, this bird was largely white across the head, neck, and underparts. More specifically, the forehead, crown, and much of the face were white, yet I noticed a black crescent right before the eye and a black band that seemed to cut across the rear part of the head to connect the spots that were located on the auriculars behind the eye. Also evident was a grayish wash across the rear part of the crown and the back of the neck. The back, scapulars, wing coverts, and most of the remiges were a pale to medium-gray, but I noted a black spot that appeared to be on one or more of the feathers in the inner region of the greater coverts. When the bird was perched, this mark appeared as a dash in the inner part of the closed wing, but when I saw the bird in flight, I noted two symmetrical spots of black on the inner part of the spread wing. I also noted on the flying bird a few black dashes that were probably on the primary coverts, but apart from these few markings, the upperside of the spread wing was gray nearly to the wingtips. Typical of an adult kittiwake, this bird had a narrow band of white along the trailing edge of the spread wing, and it had solidly black wingtips, the leading edge of which extended a short way up along the leading edge of the wing. I also thought the primaries were a slightly paler shade of gray than the coverts and secondaries, but the contrast was subtle, and it may have reflected the way the light hit the feathers rather than paler pigmentation. Behind a line that connected the trailing edges of the wings, the rump, uppertail coverts, and tail were entirely white. The underparts were also entirely white through the throat, breast, belly, sides, flanks, undertail coverts, and even the underside of the tail. With the exception of the triangular wedges of black on the wingtips, the undersides of the wings were likewise white and unmarked. The bill was an odd shade of greenish-yellow with no obvious markings, the eyes were dark, and the legs and feet were blackish, if not black, though I did not study the latter all that carefully when the bird was standing because I instead concentrated on taking photos during the brief periods that it spent perched.
Technical information
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