The light does make the second bird a bit
of a puzzler. Having grown up with
Herring Gulls I would say the jizz is all wrong for
it. They generally have a pale
mantle and black wing tips-the apparent opposite to this bird. Also, it looks too bulky-much more like
one of the “black backed” gulls-although that said the National
Geographic guide lists the Herring and Slaty Backed
(it shows up in the Aleutians so makes it into the NA guide) as identical in
dimensions. The NG guide also shows
a 3rd summer Slaty Backed with pale
primaries suggesting that may well be what is present in the photo-an adult,
but in it’s second or third year rather than its fully developed plumage.
Cheers,
Peter Miller
-----Original Message-----
From: Tobias Hayashi
[
Sent: Tuesday, 17 October 2006
4:21 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds]
Re:black-headed gull
This is
indeed a photo of a Black-headed Gull, although I have no idea as to how
eclipse plumages affect the colouration of the bird. However, I do know that
the photograph was taken near Tokyo in January. Any thoughts about the next
photo...I'm not sure of the identity of the bird. Similar place and time.
Tobias
P.S. Closer
to home, would someone enlighten me as to the differences between a Skylark
and a Pipit?
