Pale eyes

[hieraaetus]

Hi Guys,

Does any of you have an opinion where these birds might origin from?

How frequent are the pale eyes like these among 'canus'?

I found them among 100-150 CGs.
The pictures were taken on 03.17.2012 in Hungary.

Thanks for any comment!

Cheers,

Gabor

[marsmuusse]

Hi Gabor,
Last IGM in Zagreb, Chris had an interesting talk on heinei Common Gull ID in 2nd winter and adults. But we need an open wing.....

Mars

[Chris Gibbins]

Hi. Great images! I've been fiddling around with possible criteria for heinei for a little while. As Mars says, pale eyes do seem to be a feature of many heinei (based on personal observations plus images of birds in e.g. Kazakhstan on the breeding grounds). More work is needed (large samples etc) but at the moment it appears that pale eyes may offer starting point for ID of out of range adult heinei. Again, as Mars indicates, to confirm ID of these birds (well, at least as best as we can at the moment) details of primary pattern are critical. On my web site (see link below) is a discussion of a candidate in Scotland, with brief information on possible criteria. I'm busy preparing a paper on this topic, but very much provisional and 'alerting observers to possible criteria to test', rather than definitive ID.

http://www.chrisgibbins-gullsbirds.blog ... einei.html

Cheers

Chris

[Chris Gibbins]

...what I meant to add was that a nice additional hint is in P10.....note the relatively small mirror of the pale eyed bird compared to the other one standing to the left, with lots of black between the mirror and wing tip....

Chris

[hieraaetus]

Thanks guys!

I feel bad about the "open wing thing":)) I was going to try to get a picture of it but I had to keep scanning for color-ringed birds and all of a sudden the whole group took off and I didn't see any of these gulls again. I will browse through my pictures from that day to see if I have anything useful regarding this theme.

Cheers,

Gabor

[hieraaetus]

Thanks guys!

I feel bad about the "open wing thing":)) I was going to try to get a picture of it but I had to keep scanning for color-ringed birds and all of a sudden the whole group took off and I didn't see any of these gulls again. I will browse through my pictures from that day to see if I have anything useful regarding this theme.

Cheers,

Gabor

No other shots unfortunately, but I found this 1st-winter bird with basically no sign of any molt (ok. some scaps but not much:)..Can it suggest eastern origin?

Cheers,

Gabor