Perhaps if the bird's diet of fish and chips continues, it will stay
in Cooktown until it moults and people will be able to definitively ID
it based on its next plumage? I expect it will be a while before the
BARC submission goes in.
On the subject of BARC submissions, does BARC ever consult
international ornithologists who frequently see the species in
question [ie for whom the species, in its various forms, is a common
bird]?
Regards, Laurie.
On 18/02/2008, at 7:51 PM, Nikolas Haass wrote:
Jon and Tony,
Thanks for all the additional comments and photos. I do agree -
contra my yesterday's comment - that this bird overall indeed looks
better for a Mongolian Gull than a Slaty-backed Gull. I guess I put
too much weight on my impression of primary and tail pattern.
However, I am still not absolutely happy with the huge windows in
the primaries and the tail pattern. Shouldn't mongolicus have a
smaller window in the primaries? (Interestingly in some of the
pictures it appears smaller, probably due to a less spread wing, in
others the window clearly reached p9)
As Jon confirmed my earlier comment, mongolicus should have a
terminal band in the tail rather than a solid brown tail. Shouldn't
1st winter mongolicus have all tail feathers whitish with extensive
blackish brown tips (resulting in a terminal band) rather than an
almost solid blackish brown tail with the inner webs of the outer
three pairs of tail feathers extensively whitish?
Cheers,
Nikolas
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