Western Gull?

[Indranil Sircar]

I would like to get an id check on this gull... I think this is a juvenile Western Gull from its darker and large bill, darker feathers and the tail. I could have posted this in the Avian id forum but I also wanted to get critique on this image. Does this HA holds good for BIF? Settings were -

7D, Sigma 50-500mm @ 500mm hand held
1/1250 sec, f/8 Mode: Av Metering: Evaluative Exp comp: -2/3 ISO: 400

Adjusted for levels and saturation. Applied a tiny bit of Topaz DeNoise followed by usm on the web version. Your C&C will be appreciated.

[Indranil Sircar]

Like the flight pose and colors. Head angle and wing pose look good for me. Looks like you hit the exposure right. My impression is you blurred the bg ? It comes across as slightly artificial.
Cannot comment on the species.

Hi Peter, thanks a lot for the feedback. This is as shot... almost full frame. The gull was fairly close compared to the water making it OOF.

[Lance Peters]

Hi - Generally with BIF you want to get them before they have past you and generally look best with wings fully up or fully down and flying toward you rather than away.
Might have tried to capture him a little earlier, not quite past you but getting close. head looks like it might be slightly angled away - to really freeze those wings going to need to get that SS up to about 2500th - plenty of scope there as only at 400 ISO.
A little tight at the top for my personal tastes and maybe a little more space up front for him to fly into.

[Wayne Richardson]

Hi Indranil

Small head, slender bill & amount white in tail all point to California Gull IMO.

Cheers: Wayne

[Indranil Sircar]

Thanks Wayne. This would then be a dark juvenile.

[Indranil Sircar]

Hi - Generally with BIF you want to get them before they have past you and generally look best with wings fully up or fully down and flying toward you rather than away.
Might have tried to capture him a little earlier, not quite past you but getting close. head looks like it might be slightly angled away - to really freeze those wings going to need to get that SS up to about 2500th - plenty of scope there as only at 400 ISO.
A little tight at the top for my personal tastes and maybe a little more space up front for him to fly into.

Thanks Lance. Agree on your points. I do have other frames before it approached me but not the best of wing position.

[John Chardine]

Indranil- It's very important to have a location and date for species ID like this. People travel so I don't assume that a particular image comes from the BPN member location.

[Arthur Morris]

The head is angled away from the line of the body. Looks like a juvie Western Gull to me.

[Indranil Sircar]

Hi Artie, thanks for correcting the id. I am still trying to learn better ways of recognizing the juveniles. I went back to look for more clues and here is another frame from the same series with feet dangling and shows distinctly pink to be California Gull.

[Indranil Sircar]

Indranil- It's very important to have a location and date for species ID like this. People travel so I don't assume that a particular image comes from the BPN member location.

Hi John, that's a good point. This was taken in at the Don Edwards NWR on 7/31/2010.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, thanks for correcting the id. I am still trying to learn better ways of recognizing the juveniles. I went back to look for more clues and here is another frame from the same series with feet dangling and shows distinctly pink to be California Gull.

On a second glance I believe that you need to thank Wayne not me. I spoke to soon; juvie Western would have a much heavier bill. And Wayne is much better at ID than I am, even with my beloved shorebirds.

[Indranil Sircar]

Thanks Artie, thanks Wayne. What about the feet? It seems to be pink. Is it consistent with a California Gull?

[John Chardine]

For a young bird, pink feet are fine for a California Gull. Foot colour and bill colour develop in gulls as they age. Gull chicks see a lot of their parent's bills and legs and imprint on the adult colour so that their future mate choices are appropriate (i.e., within the same species).