ML141055311
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Continuing/returning adult. Very distinctive individual with black horizontal line on the maxilla, small black area on the edge of the red spot on the bill, and signs of leucism evident in several white feathers on the tops of each wing. Another distinctive feature of the bird was the odd leg color, which I considered a dull pinkish yellow or dull pink/yellow. I've heard the legs of this bird described as yellow-green or greenish yellow, but I saw no greenish tones at all on the legs. In other respects this bird looked like any adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. When the bird was at rest, the upper parts were a dark gray very similar in tone and darkness to nearby adult Western Gulls. The underparts were white. The head was mostly white, but with an obvious dark smudge around the pale yellow eye and fine white streaking on the crown and nape. The tail was white. When the bird was at rest, you could also see white spots on the black flight feathers. When the bird was in flight, you could see one flight feather (outermost or second most outer feather) that had an extensive black tip with a prominent white spot below the tip. Structurally, the bird was smaller than Western Gull, and probably a little closer in size to California than to Western. It had a more slender, daintier appearance than Western Gull, and a longer-winged appearance.The bill was both narrower and shorter than that of Western, and was of relatively even length. Compared to the bill of California Gull, it was broader and possibly shorter.
Technical information
- Model
- DMC-FZ70
- ISO
- 100
- Focal length
- 176.6 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/640 sec
- Dimensions
- 3732 pixels x 2908 pixels
- Original file size
- 2.09 MB