Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Pretty Puzzle










































Anybody want to take a crack at this gull?

8 comments:

Abu Anka said...

Oh, come on! Somebody give it a try! ;-)

Russell Cannings said...

3rd-cycle Thayer's Gull is the best I can do... don't have much experience with that age-group. Intriguing bird for sure!

Abu Anka said...

I have been trying to convince myself of that since I first saw the bird. Third cycle Thayer's makes sense. Check out P9 though. Solid black. Ths is typically a Herring Gull trait. Also, the mirror on P10 seems way too small for a Thayer's Gull. So, yeah. I'm stumped. I want to call it a Thayer's, but....

Russell Cannings said...

Yeah I see what ya mean... I think you've got a decent case there.

Conky said...

Common Erectus Conky Gull

Abu Anka said...

How you get so smaaaaaaat?

Wesley Greentree said...

Herring X Thayers?

Abu Anka said...

According to the "experts", these two species never hybridise. Knowing gulls, I find this hard to believe. It may be extremely rare, but gulls being gulls, I'm not sure I would ever say "NEVER".

I have also seen some birds over the year which make me wonder.

One person suggested that this particular bird may be a Herring Gull with some Glaucous-winged Gull genes from several generations back. That should always be a consideration when dealing with oddball Herring Gulls. This bird seems oddly "dainty" to have GWGU genes though, at least to my eyes.