ML26019501

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Tags

Multiple species

Observation details

Juvenile. Size of Herring with bill black, heavier and with thicker tip than THGU. Pale wing tips with striking white undersides. Body smudgy, fairly uniformly gray overall. More brown than white on wing coverts. Gull ID experts (Alvaro Jaramillo, Amar Ayyash) reached agreement that this individual was well within the variation of pure GWGU. Here are some of their comments on the fb North American Gulls Group: Noah Arthur: Glaucous-winged for me, maybe with some Herring genes but probably not a first-generation hybrid in my opinion (looks back-crossed with Glaucous-winged). The smudgy, cloudy gray overall plumage is a very good thing to look for in separating G-winged from Thayer's and Kumlien's. Also, Kumlien's (which would match this bird's pale primaries) wouldn't have more brown than white on the wing coverts like this guy. Noah Arthur: Amar, what's making you think this guy has Herring in him? He's not quite typical of Glaucous-winged -- a little dark -- but I'm not seeing anything that clearly points to Herring rather than Western or just a dark G-winged. Amar Ayyash:I could live with Glaucous-winged Gull, Noah. Alvaro Jaramillo: This is perfectly fine for a pure Glaucous-winged Gull to me. They vary wildly in how dark they are, but key is the overall evenness to the plumage.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

ISO

250

Focal length

215 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.5

Shutter speed

1/320 sec

Dimensions

1000 pixels x 898 pixels

Original file size

312.79 KB