ML189208471

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

First-cycle birds among many Laughing Gulls. Slightly but definitely smaller than (neither as tall nor as long as) a LAGU, but proportionately plumper, with more rounded body. Bill smaller, proportionately shorter than that of a LAGU, but especially straighter and more slender. Bill and legs/feet all-black, eye all-black. Dark "half-hood" contrasted with whitish nape and hindneck and with white forehead, lower face, neck, and breast and made the white crescents above and below the eye much more prominent than on the LAGU. Back and scapulars unmarked medium gray, more or less similar to that of the basic adult LAGU. On one bird, many of the lesser and median upper-secondary coverts, and some of the greater coverts, were the same pale gray as the mantle (i.e., the juvenile feathers in these areas had already been replaced). The remaining juvenile upperwing coverts had dark brownish interiors and paler buff-gray edging. In contrast, bird #2 was not so far advanced, and in the field I noted no upperwing coverts that had been replaced. Tertials had dark grayish/dusky interiors. Primaries black with small white apical spots, which were lacking on all the juvenile/first-basic LAGU. In flight, the tail was seen to be mostly white, with a fairly narrow black subterminal band on most of the rectrices. The outermost pair of rectrices appeared all white, and the next pair were mostly white but with a small black subterminal spot. In contrast, the tails of the juvenile/first-basic LAGU had very little white, usually appearing all-dark. On the spread upperwing, the "hand" of the FRGU appeared more gray than, and not as dark overall as, the juvenile/first-basic LAGU. The underwing coverts of the FRGU were very white, not heavily mottled as on the juvenile/first-basic LAGU. The FRGU appeared slightly more buoyant, with slightly quicker wingbeats, than the LAGU in flight.

Technical information

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Original file size

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