Yellow-legged Gull (lusitanius)?

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binocularface
Posts:2
Joined:Thu Apr 01, 2010 8:53 pm
Yellow-legged Gull (lusitanius)?

Post by binocularface » Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:46 am

Hi,

I recently photographed the gull in the attached images in Dumfries & Galloway (Scotland). To my relatively inexperienced eye the overall structure, bill pattern, gape & orbital ring colouration and primary pattern all fit Yellow-legged Gull pretty well. However this bird seems paler mantled that I would usually expect in michahelis, the leg colouration is more of a washed out yellow in tone and the bird is quite small. Does this bird fit lusitanius or is there some hybrid influence?

Advice greatly appreciated.

Regards
Tristan
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(2).jpg
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(2).jpg (88.15KiB)Viewed 5333 times
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(13).jpg
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(13).jpg (80.14KiB)Viewed 5333 times
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(12).jpg
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(12).jpg (103.65KiB)Viewed 5333 times
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(5).jpg
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(5).jpg (93.89KiB)Viewed 5333 times
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(4).jpg
Yellow-legged-Gull---Bishop-Burn-(4).jpg (92.93KiB)Viewed 5333 times

Cristian Mihai
Posts:277
Joined:Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:03 am

Re: Yellow-legged Gull (lusitanius)?

Post by Cristian Mihai » Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:31 pm

If I would see such a bird in Romania, I would identify it as a female Yellow-legged Gull. But this is a bird from UK...

Cristian Mihai
Posts:277
Joined:Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:03 am

Re: Yellow-legged Gull (lusitanius)?

Post by Cristian Mihai » Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:21 pm

Some interesting comments/opinions here:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=195513

binocularface
Posts:2
Joined:Thu Apr 01, 2010 8:53 pm

Re: Yellow-legged Gull (lusitanius)?

Post by binocularface » Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:07 pm

Thanks Cristian - It seems this bird may be unidentifiable! The term 'lusitanius' appears to be a bit frightening ;-)

Cristian Mihai
Posts:277
Joined:Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:03 am

Re: Yellow-legged Gull (lusitanius)?

Post by Cristian Mihai » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:32 pm

Yep, probably this is one of the reasons we like the gulls - sometimes we don't know what they really are! :lol:

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