Outdoor Ontario

Request for Information => Bird ID => Topic started by: What was that? on November 02, 2009, 06:24:24 PM

Title: Gulls???
Post by: What was that? on November 02, 2009, 06:24:24 PM

From Rotary Park

Herring gull?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4069509229/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4069509229/)

Juvenile something?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4069513549/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4069513549/)

Thanks in advance
Graham

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Post by: Soaring Hawk on November 02, 2009, 08:17:43 PM

#1 looks like an Adult Herring gull and #2 looks like a juvenile Herring gull.

-james

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Post by: What was that? on November 02, 2009, 08:31:11 PM

Thank you, juvie looks enormous (hhmm, just thinking about Thanksgiving and Xmas for some reason).
Graham

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Post by: Brian Bailey on November 02, 2009, 10:36:41 PM

The juvenile looks like a Great Black-backed.  Herring tend to be more uniformly dark.  This bird has a very white head and dark back.  It would also explain the large size.  Note also the very stout bill.

BB

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Post by: Brian Bailey on November 03, 2009, 06:00:42 PM

The first photo is actually a more interesting ID challenge.  I don't have an answer, but this is the question:  If the bird in the foreground is an adult Herring Gull (pinkish legs, red spot on bill), what it the bird in the background?  It's clearly much larger, has bright pink legs and appears to have black primaries.  

Do you have more photos of these two that might give a clue?

I'm stumped! :?

BB

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Post by: What was that? on November 03, 2009, 10:17:37 PM

I also posted pics under the Toronto Reports section. I believe that the bird in question is a juvenile ringbilled gull.  However, I am fully prepared to be wrong.
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4070262452/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4070262452/)

Here's another picture from the set (cropped only, no other adjustments (levels or HSB)).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4073430453/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/39167841@N06/4073430453/)

Graham

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Post by: Brian Bailey on November 03, 2009, 10:44:27 PM

Yes, those ones are a juvenile Ring-billed and Great Black-backed.  It's this one that has me perplexed:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/4069509229_b944ca0105.jpg)
All of these birds appear to be adults.  If the bird in front is a Herring Gull, what's the one in the back?  (And visa versa.)

The bird in the back appears to be the size of a Great Black-backed, with a pale mantle, pink legs, and dark primaries. ??! :?

I'm guessing the partially obscured gull in the middle is a Ring-billed.  (based on relative size and leg colour)

Brian

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Post by: Raven11:11 on November 04, 2009, 03:40:45 PM

WOW!! I am confident i came into very close contact with this gull several months ago while waiting at a bus stop in north etobicoke, a red-tailed hawk hunts pigeons on a local building directly across the street from where i wait for a bus everyday & he left a half eaten pigeon near the stop . The gull was scavenging , it really caught my attention due to its LARGE size - almost double a regular seagull.