Common Gull in Norway

[Kent Olsen]

In February 2010 I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Stavanger, Norway and the most promising gull spot was the partly frozen lake at Breidavatn in central city. A large number of Common Gulls were seen on each visit and their variability in moult progression was striking.

The plumage variation in Stavanger was surprising seen from a Danish point of view as we only occasionally find Common Gulls with retained juvenile mantel and scapulars in late winter.

In Denmark most individuals have completed their first winter moult by February whereas gulls that had retained an extensive amount of juvenile upperpart coverts seemed predominant among the Stavanger gulls, with some even being in complete juvenile plumage. Such “retarded” individuals either belong to northern late breeding populations or they might be eastern ssp. heinei.

There are photos of some 36 individuals here: http://gulldk.blogspot.com/2010/09/comm ... moult.html

Cheers

Kent

[JanJ]

Interesting set of canus - heinei (?). Remains difficult to pin down the different ssp, as well outlined by Kent on his site. There are some further speculations of heinei gulls on the mentioned site.

Just for show - some adult Common ssp showing variation in bill size, upperparts tone and some other minor differences.

http://user.chollian.net/~aves/news/060 ... n-gull.htm

http://user.chollian.net/~aves/news/050 ... omgull.htm

Jan