Larus canus

[marsmuusse]

Today, Voorhout - Holland. CG from Finland 156.332, probably CT-156.332.

[Lars krogh]

Here a danish ringed henei from 14.12.2008 Damhussøen in Copenhagen .

[marsmuusse]

Pictures of about 50 heinei from kazachstan:
http://www.birds.kz/Larus%20canus/indexe.html

[JanJ]

I´m sure you people will note the missidentifications in the August section in the Kazakhstan heinei sections.

Jan

[Theo Muusse]

Yes, pics are crap but still ID-able.
I will send them a mail.

Theo

[Morg]

I photographed this first winter Common Gull with heavily marked rump/uppertail coverts and dark smoky marks on the tail in Edinburgh yesterday. There certainly seems to be a range of degrees of uppertail spotting in the local flock at the moment - but this is the most extreme individual. Obviously it has been photographed in poor light and at an angle that possibly accentuates the markings but I thought the way the spotting of the rump/uppertail coverts almost merges into bars was interesting. For comparison, the third picture shows a different, more-normally plumaged individual photographed in the same place 3 seconds later.

IMG_9605.JPG (322.22KiB)Viewed 17677 times

IMG_9615.JPG (308.78KiB)Viewed 17677 times

IMG_9617.jpg (300.87KiB)Viewed 17677 times

Presumably this individual has reduced wear (or delayed moult?), but I thought its appearance worth noting here. I realise that the variation within populations of Common Gulls is very high, but, nevertheless, any comments?

I have posted more photos of this gull and a wider range of Common Gull variation photographed in Edinburgh over the last few days here: http://morgithology.blogspot.com/

Thanks

Geoff

[adriaens]

Hi Geoff,

interesting bird, and great to see that you are documenting the variation in Common Gulls!
The bird reminds me of one we had in Belgium a few years ago:
http://waarnemingen.be/waarneming/view/41187140

Together with a strange Common Gull from the Netherlands, this bird was discussed thoroughly in Dutch Birding 31:5 (2009).

[Morg]

Thanks for those very interesting links - I'd like to read that article in DB - I'll pop along the SOC library at some point unless anyone has an electronic version?...

Funnily enough as soon as I saw the bird's tone and rump in the field I thought it was suggestive of one of the Pacific forms. However, Mew Gull is not really in the frame at all, and the tail bar is surely much too narrow for kamtschatschensis? That said I think that the wide setting of the legs indicates that this may be a slightly larger bird but on this brief view without any other gulls for direct comparison I don't think size can be judged.

In terms of heinei, I have read that this type of pattern could indicate that form but cannot find any definitive heinei pics with anything other than a white rump and uppertail in 1st winter. But heinei pics seem very difficult to source. Are there any galleries on the web? I have seen the Kazakhstan site, a limited number of pics of colour ringed birds in Europe and googled searched with a few of the likely locations but I wonder whether anyone has nice sets of images from their breeding or wintering areas.

Hopefully the bird will come back for more bread... it would be nice to see the front half of the bird!

Geoff

[JanJ]

Interessting tail pattern in Geoff's and of course Peter's bird, which I have seen before.
Just a few reminders showing variability in Common Gull, regarding Geoff's pic.
Here´s a 1cy canus from Norway showing a similar pattern as in Geoff's 2nd bird.

http://cyberbirding.uib.no/gull/cg/1cy_01.php

Also intresting to note the 2 viewings of Geoff's bird where the tail pattern looks completely different, are they really are the same individual?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jdrosTA4UhM/T ... G_9356.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jdrosTA4UhM/T ... G_9374.JPG

There is some variability regarding the outermost t-feather in 1cy canus, some have dark spots while some show barring.

http://gulldk.blogspot.com/search/label/Larus%20canus

Maybe the tail pattern in this one is due to angle:

http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=s ... e_id=31985

One from Poland. Note the barring in the t-feathers and the pattern on the outermost.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/ ... _00208.jpg

Jan

[adriaens]

I have now uploaded photographs of 10 first-cycle Common Gulls here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Zorkyyy/CommonGull1stCycle

Most of these are unusual or interesting in one or more respects. They include more photographs of the dark-tailed bird that I previously linked to; it is "bird 4" in the series. They also include a museum skin of a 1c heinei (bird 10).