www.gull-research.org

Another shot of the same bird - a little more head-on.

Interesting and very helpful thank you. It was the fact that the bird was noticeably more pale than other Westerns present that made me unsure about this one especially as I have very limited experience of this species. Also when trying to firm up IDs of my shots that day using mainly Olsen/Larsson ...

I am pretty sure this is a 1st winter Western Gull pictured in San Francisco in March but would appreciate any input please.

I meant to include smithsonianus as a possible and on reflection the location and extensive pale mirrors make this perhaps the most likely - it was a little too far south for regular Western.

Seen off the Pacicfic coast of southern Mexico, this gull is still puzzling me. I only managed to get this single poor shot. I lean towards Western but clearly Californian is also possible. The wings were very dark with pale primaries but the heavily marked tail with dark terminal band shows up in t...

Thanks Mars, good to have a confirmation. It was a first for me as I try to improve my gull ID skills.

As there have been a few views of this, I wondered if anyone had any thoughts. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Eric.

Seen on December 4th during a brief visit to Haifa Israel. The dark marking on bill, mirror only on p10 [tiny one on p9] leads me to Armenian. Any thoughts please.

Thank you Ronald and Martin. The Norway link was great and I obtained life lists for both birds. They were both ringed locally and have been fairly local in their movements.

I photographed this adult Canus in Tromso, Norway, on June 26th 2011. Can anyone help please with the origin of the ring? The code is J482 with black letters on a white ring. Many thanks, Eric. There is a metal ring on the left leg.