Taken in Washington state a few years ago in August...I think its a Glaucus/Glaucus-winged Gull Hybrid, never seen a gull with the black around the eye...anyone have any ideas...
Maybe a California Gull
Tough gull to ID
red eye ring
black iris
Glaucus/Glaucus-winged Gull Hybrid
Taken in Washington state a few years ago in August...I think its a Glaucus/Glaucus-winged Gull Hybrid, never seen a gull with the black around the eye...anyone have any ideas...
Maybe a California Gull
Tough gull to ID
red eye ring
black iris
Last edited by Paul Lagasi; 10-30-2010 at 12:16 AM.
Hi Paul- You really know how to stir the pot! Many gulls are tough, hybrids are tougher, if indeed it is one.
California Gulls have yellowish legs as adults and are slighter in build compared to this bird. The mantle looks dark here but photos of gulls can be misleading due to lighting conditions. If you take the mantle colour at face-value, it looks darkish and the wingtips look grayish. Western Gulls have pretty dark mantles and Sibley does show a Western x Glaucous-winged hybrid that looks like your bird, including the dark iris. The dark around the eye is I think a red-herring and may be due to loss of feathers from chewing lice.
Notice how skillfully I avoid making a pronouncement!
Hi Paul,
I think John is steering you in the right direction. You might Google "Olympic Gull" to learn about the hybrid zone in Washington (assuming you were on the coast).
Declan
I'll wade into this very mucky end of the gene pool known as large white-headed gulls. Unfortunately, I'm on the wrong coast to have much personal experience in their variability and hybridization, but I'll take a swing.
I don't think it's Glaucous x Glaucous-winged. It's hard to judge because the bird's upperparts are in tough light, but it appears that the back is roughly in range for Glaucous-winged and the wingtips are a little bit darker but not black. These might be within the norm for Glaucous-winged. If this bird had Glaucous in it, I'd expect those features to lighten it a bit. I'd also expect Glaucous influence to round out the head a bit. To my eye, Glaucous-winged has a kind of flat and narrow head which your picture shows.
"Olympic" Gull (a.k.a. "Puget Sound" Gull) describes a nasty mess of Glaucous-winged x Western hybrids. Since they backcross, generalities can be tough and there are much better birders than I that leave individuals unidentified. Still, I'd expect any large amount of Western Gull influence to potentially darken the primaries even further, maybe darken the mantle a bit more, to broaden the head more, and maybe make the bill look more massive and "meaner" by increasing the gonydial angle (the sharp angle on the lower bill where the red spot is). Of course all that can quickly go out the window on some form of backcross with more Glaucous-winged influence.
So I'll roll the dice and call this bird a straight up Glaucous-winged, but I wouldn't bet my binocular on it.
"That's just my opinion. I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
If you want to dig deeper into this subject, there's a good web site with lots of photos at:
http://tertial.us/gulls/gulls.htm
John: The comment on possible feather loss due to lice is really interesting. I'll have to dig into that a bit more.
Hi,
I find it hard to resist the challenge of a weird gull, so I'll weigh in a bit as well. First off, I'll admit that I don't have a clue what this bird really is, but I'll throw in a few thoughts. There's nothing about it's head shape, bill shape or overall coloration that to me suggests a G-W, and apart from the pale primaries (which could perhaps be explained by feather wear or damage) it looks like a Western with a black eye and unusually deep pink legs. The primaries look abnormally short as well as pale, and have only 1 mirror - so they might well be damaged, and should therefore not be given too much weight in this exercise. However, just to stir the pot a bit more, the bill shape, mantle color and leg color, plus at least some of the dark around the eye, might just suggest some Slaty-backed genes in there, if such a thing can occur.
A brief related anecdote - I went to the Birders World Gull conference at Niagara Falls a few years ago, and one of the highlights was the number of times several acknowledged world authorities couldn't ID, or argued about, a particular bird in real life or during some of the evening quiz slide shows, --- but the erudite discussions about how to go about attempting it were fascinating!
Richard
Hi Paul. I think you would be safe to call this either Olympic or Glaucous-wing x Western! The mantle looks too dark for Glaucous and too light for western. The primaries that I would like to see seem to be missing? It's a mutt! The bill, eye and one primary look like the bird has been into some oil or black gunk!Originally Posted by Paul Lagasi
Thanks Everyone...I am going through about 50,000 images, trying to get rid of duplication. I already have another dozen or so bird images that leave me, Sibleys and the other 10 guides I own lacking.
I will classify the above as an Olympic Gull/ hybrid.
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