ML614620074

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - 1

Behaviors

Flying

Observation details

At 07:20 one flew north up the main Mekong River Channel as viewed from 20.3030528, 100.0937299 on the banks near at the Rhim Kong restaurant. The bird was extremely distant, but was clearly a gull from size, structure and the lazy flight pattern. Consequently I decided to attempt to photograph the bird so an ID might be achieved, since field marks were not possible to observe through binoculars. In total 10 photos were taken before the bird was lost behind the vegetation on the island directly in front of the viewing area. Not all photos were sharp, resulting in around 6 photos of usable quality. Strangely, it never reappeared out on the other side, meaning the photos were all that was available for identification. From the photos the most striking feature was the completely dark wingtip with no white present at all. This was consistent across all photos. Next the shawl was quite striking, with a dark spot clearly visible on the ear coverts, again present in all photos. The upperwings have a clear two-toned grey pattern with the outer wing appearing nearly white before the black tip. Although our knowledge of the gulls in the area is more limited than in Western Europe, the only species that this individual could be based on these characteristics is an adult Black-legged Kittiwake. I am completely unfamiliar with Red-legged Kittiwake but since BL is known to occur in Thailand, it seems to follow that this is the identification of the bird here. What this species is doing so far inland at this time of year is a mystery, but the excessive use of fireworks the previous 24hours due to a Chinese New Year may have had something to do with it.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS R5

Lens

RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM

ISO

1250

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

979 pixels x 699 pixels

Original file size

92.17 KB