window in micha

[lou bertalan]

hi,

the strongest window in michahellis that i know of is shown in this pic by visa rauste: http://www.helsinki.fi/~rauste/gulls/thassos02.html
however, slightly less pale inner primaries but still paler than expected are found in some birds of either western european/mediterranean and eastern (black sea, inland romania, aegean sea) michahellis - with eastern birds showing a slightly stronger tendency for this (and other cachi-like traits) according to personal experience with pics from romania. a bird from today shot by cristian in herastrau park bucharest brought me back onto this theme: http://www.lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_phi. ... nuary-june (underwing: http://www.lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_phi. ... nuary-june). the pale inner wing in ruud's presumed cachi x micha from 2007: http://daarruud.home.xs4all.nl/cachinnans2m.html to me looks more like being argentatus influenced, especially since it is grizzled and not plain. that would fit with the retarded moult state and GC pattern of that bird, even if ruud writes that the jizz doesn't fit a cachi x tatus hybrid.
since quite many michas show a clear venetian blind (which is accentuated by bleaching in midwinter) i often wondered about the valability of darker inner primaries in micha versus paler ones in cachinnans since there is so much overlap and variation in both. on a very general scale the pale portions in micha are more restricted than in cachi, but especially in the outer half of primaries: p5-p9! (visible only in well spread wings)

lou