3cy American Herring Gull, Madrid, Spain

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Stefan
Posts:65
Joined:Tue Feb 07, 2012 6:28 am
3cy American Herring Gull, Madrid, Spain

Post by Stefan » Tue Nov 19, 2019 9:50 pm

This 2nd winter American Herring gull was discovered by Delfin Gonzáles in Madrid, Spain, and all photos are taken by him. It is the first and only inland Spanish record of an American Herring gull. This record has been accepted by the Spanish Rarity Committee. The under and upperparts differ from all similar aged smith-lookalikes I have seen in Iceland. While the underparts are blotchy/mottled, these appear smoother compared to most smith look-alikes. The hindneck and the upper mantle, while blotchy, appears overall to be quite smooth/"uniform" in texture. The scapulars have feathers of two generations. The greater coverts, while quite worn have a darker band in the middle [is this found in smith look-alikes?]. The tertials are quite dark centered with narrow white fringe. The whole length of the outer vane border of the outermost tail feathers (T6) is black. While curiously, 2nd winter European Herring gull can have more blackish tail feathers compared to the first winter, the T6 does is rarely all black. The density of the barring on the upper and under tail coverts seems to be quite dense, but difficult to inspect from photos. The irregularly shaped barring/spots may resemble to some of the lookalikes seen in Iceland, but this needs further inspection. The axillaries (although clearly worn) appear to be quite smooth. The bill appears to be stronger to most Smith lookalikes, that have no obvious glaucous influence. The grey/dusky colour tone is of interest, but several Smith look-alikes have been found that have been found that are similar to this one [needs further comparison work].
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