ML49387591
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Immature Unknown sex - X
Media notes
RE. AGE: This is a first-winter Mew Gull of the European (nominate) subspecies (Larus canus canus). First-year status is evinced by no white markings in the primary tips, a white tail with a clean-edged blackish submarginal band (adult has no such band), and relatively dark-marked underwing coverts (as contrasted with much lighter such coverts in adults of this species/subspecies). Other features related to age may be noted in discussion of others of these photos. RE. ID-COMPETITOR SUBSPECIES: This individual is NOT the western USA/Canada subspecies ID-competitor Mew Gull (i.e., not Larus canus brachyrhynchus), but is, instead, the European subspecies, canus. The following features shown in this photo make this clear: (a) As in first-winter canus, this individual has a "clean" whitish belly with minimal, very small spotting and clean, white undertail coverts, not the rather heavily brown-marked underside of brachyrhynchus (both belly and undertail); (b) like the canus subspecies, this individual has a clean, bright-white tail with a submarginal deeply black band, not the largely brown/blackish tail of brachyrhynchus. RE. ID-COMPETITOR SPECIES: The species ID-competitor, Ring-billed Gull, can be eliminated: (a) First the very clean whiteness of the bird's tail and undertail coverts in my photos--along with a discretely defined, dark subterminal tail band not extending far toward the tail base--are features not to be expected in Ring-billed Gull, which usually has a far broader dark area in tail, generally, also, with darkish graduated shading further inward in some retrices, even when the intensely blackish subterminal band is relatively narrow and defined. Unexpected in Ring-billed is a tail pattern as clean-cut as in the present bird, which is shown in all the photos herewith, including photos taken from differing angles. See, also, Photo ML49387661 for the exceedingly white uppertail coverts on the present, bird, a feature that virtually shouts "Larus canus canus" in a bird like this. (b) As in this photo (ML49387591), as in Photos ML49387721 ML49387741, this bird seems to have a relatively slender (i.e., not thick) bill, not at all a heavy one, with a relatively gentle curve to its tip (including a minimally angled gonys), and the black-to -color delineation of the bill-tip and base looks far less than sharp in my photos. By contrast, the Ring-billed Gull has a sharper division between the black tip and the colored base of the bill, making the bill have, in shape and color--but not, of course, size--resemblancde to that of a Glaucous Gull during its first year.
Observation details
All of the photos herewith were taken from the east side of Shinnecock Inlet. This six-photo set of the Mew Gull (Larus canus canus) represents what I deemed my best photos of this very rare gull; all were taken with a 35 mm SLR film camera with a telephoto lens that zoomed up to 300mm (with varied focal lengths across the photos). All of the attached images are crops from the full frame. All are based upon electronic scanning of the commercially processed prints of my film-based photos. Some of the scan images have received some minimal electronic photo processing. That processing was intended simply to make more readily visible details present in the unprocessed photos of the Mew Gull (given somewhat low light and, sometimes, shadowing), such detail being important to judgment of species and subspecies. Thus, the processing involved solely manipulation of light-related variables. In no case did it involve any effort to add to or remove details from the photos or alter structure of anything shown there. I would be glad to provide scanned images of the original unprocessed photos, upon request from any member of the eBird team. The photos provided herewith provide clear evidence that the species shown in them is a Mew Gull of the European form (Larus canus canus) and is neither the species ID-competitor (Ring-billed Gull) nor the subspecies ID-competitor (the western USA/Canada Mew Gull, Larus canus brachyrhynchus). It will also establish this Larus canus canus as bearing first-winter plumage (with some retained juvenile feathering). Details in support of these claims may be found in the remarks associated with individual photos. No member of our party was the discoverer of this Mew Gull (European). It was, according to the 1999 Annual Report of the New York State Avian Records Committee, present in the Shinnecock Inlet from at least February 6 to March 23, 1999. Their discussion of this bird seemed to me to indicate that the original discoverers of the bird were Anthony J.Lauro, John J. Fritz, and Joan Quinlan, and that report noted that many other birders saw and photographed it during its lengthy stay. The species and subspecies of this Mew Gull were noted by NYSARC to be Larus canus canus, based on a detailed analysis of its discriminative features. My own analysis, based on my own photos of the bird fully concur with that conclusion.
Technical information
- Dimensions
- 2081 pixels x 1387 pixels
- Original file size
- 411.53 KB