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Today a 2cy Herring Gull tested my knowledge on smithsonianus;
a near all dark tail, beautyful barred uppertail-coverts and rump and undertail-coverts (dark broader than pale bars), tertials dark with only on the top third a marked fringe, scapulars near plain with only on the top some irregular markings, heavy head, pretty dark underparts and head and longish Glaucous Gull-like bill.
Not showing the characteristic shawl, leaving a Herring the choice it to be, although with quite some smithsonianus pointers...
Or is the shawl not needed in mid-summer moulting time?

Theo Muusse

The pics:

THeo

Today the look-a-like cigar was still present at the same place. Here two pics of today. With a herring gull of the same age in the second picture.

Some pics of the 2nd-cycle smithsonianus that is currently in Kerry, Ireland:
http://pewit.blogspot.com/2010/08/ameri ... -gull.html

Very uniform plumage including lower breast and belly; all-dark tail; thin and quite long dark vertical bars on upper and under tail-coverts (not the triangular brown spots on whitish background of most European Herring Gulls); brown smudges on lower hindneck; relatively long bill; pale iris.

beauty is certainly not one of this bird's assets

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

More pics.

http://waarneming.nl/waarneming/view/49605834

Theo

It seems hard to find pictures of 2cy smithsonianus in (late) summer. I found some:

http://www.pbase.com/m_muller/american_herring_gull
http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures ... 135139&v=0 (first picture)

A look-a-like very similar to the bird of this topic could be found on this interesting page: http://ostfoldmaker.blogspot.com/2009/1 ... likes.html (Individual 11)

Just a few 2nd-cycle European Herring Gulls for comparison:
http://picasaweb.google.be/Zorkyyy/2ndC ... erringGull#
Note that bird 1-3 were all seen at the same location on the same date. I am not entirely sure of the age of bird 5; it could be a 3rd rather than 2nd cycle.

I have quite a few more examples of fairly dark 2nd-cycle birds, but in the above link I have limited myself to August birds only.

Also, some stuff that is flying around in Iceland:

a dark hybrid Glaucous x Herring Gull -- quite a few birds of this dark type An unidentified gull... It was not entirely typical of American Herring Gull,
and in the end I did not submit it to the Icelandic rarities committee. With birds like that flying around in Europe, it is no wonder that we need very strict criteria.
See also the colour-ringed, dark argentatus in the blog already posted by Albert.