The gull sounds interesting, though on the strength of the
description it is possibly going to remain unidentified with any
certainty. With luck it'll turn up in Darwin and we'll get further views.
Laughing Gull with a black head should have red bill and white
around the eye, so it seems unlikely that it was this. Black-headed
can be ruled out, as can Sabine's (both have lots of white in the
wing) and Black-tailed (no black head), the only other rare Gulls
that have been recorded for the NT. Brown-headed Gull has white in
the wings, Little Gull does not have black wingtips, Saunders Gull
has white in the wings, Great Black-headed Gull has a yellow bill,
Sooty Gull has a grey-brown breast, Franklin's and Relict Gulls
have red bills and white in the wing, Bonaparte's has lots of white in
the wing and that's about it for the possibilities as far as I can
make out...(from looking in A Field Guide to theWaterbirds of Asia)
It seems as if the bird should have had some white in the wings, or
had red on the bill and / or white around the eye if it was fully black-
headed. Descriptions of size and jizz may assist. Can the 'absent'
features (red on bill, white around eye, white on the wing apart from
the trailing edge) be ruled out on the basis of good views or could
they have been present, just not confirmed.
I've got my fingers crossed for the right sort of weather to bring the
bird(s) into Darwin, and I'm checking on my Gull identification in
anticipation.
Happy Gulling
Niven
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