Putative Heuglin's Gull in Germany

[Ruud Altenburg]

I'm posting this on behalf of Ronald Klein, who sent me the following text and images:

These photos were taken om 29th November 2009 near Rostock/Germany.
Unfortunally is their quality not the best.

Following additionell features, not all visible at the images, were noted:

1)size like Herring gull, but higher in the vertical (long-legged)
2)pale yellow legs
3)shape clearly similar to Pontic gull
4)iris colour looks not pale, more amber-coloured
5)no stripes on head or around the eyes, but hindneck stripped (like cachinnans)
I have quit a lot experience in large gulls, so I am absolutely sure, it is not a LBBG so what?

I am looking forward and would be happy about your opinions.

[Ruud Altenburg]

The similarity to Caspian Gull indeed is striking. I find it hard to judge the primary moult score from these pictures. Is the wing fully grown (at rest it looks as if it's rather short winged but in flight it seems to show a complete wing)? Was it possible to judge the 'freshness' of the primaries in the field?

[Ronald Klein]

The primaries seemed to be fresh, not weared. Note the tiny, but unspoiled white tips.

[Steve Klasan]

To my opinion the streaks on hindneck of Heuglin’s Gulls often seems to be coarser and more contrasting than in CaspG. I’ve no experience with the species in the field, but this was always my impression when viewing adult heuglini’s in winter plumage on pictures.

Ronalds bird seems to show this feature, to some extent (see first picture). Iris color, head-, wing pattern and upperparts as well as the jizz look quite good for heuglini.

Greetings Steve

[Theo Muusse]

Does heuglini on this date always show active moult in primaries?
It seems to have finished the moult and shows only a small mirror to p10, suggesting 3-4cy..
There also seems to be black on the primary coverts..
Being a 3cy, the all white secondaries preferably show some black feathers/ markings in heuglini.
Neck-streaking sadly can not be seen properly, it might help if there is a sharper picture.
If its a 4cy, the absence of active moult is surprising.
THeo

[Ronald Klein]

4th ky. was my impression too, because the bird has some dark marknings on primary coverts. For me, I was surprised about mantle colour, paler than expected for heuglini. What about barabensis? Hindneck-streaking was visible in field, but not at the images.

Unfortunally the birds were disturbed, so Axel Schulz (author of the photos) and me have had only a few minuts of time.

[JanJ]

Perhaps a non adult or a non breeding heuglini (if now that is the one), would have finished it´s primary moult at this date. Normally (if such a word can be used in this case), adult or near adults would be in primary moult - with variable scoring at this date. The rather narrow dark mark on p5 and non in p4 looks rather odd for a near adult and adult heuglini. Further more, there seems to be some pale rather long tongues going on in the outer primaries in the first image, not verified in image 2. If so - what doe´s that tell us? In all, although interesting, I would be surprised if a possitive identification coud be established for this gull.
Why isn´t it a LBBG, or even a H-word bird?

JanJ

[marsmuusse]

When we agree on this bird being in sub-adult plumage, forget this reply; but when in adult plumage, this section may be of interest:
viewforum.php?f=15

see adult heuglini - Buzun 2002 (1) - (4).

[Ronald Klein]

Why isn´t it a LBBG, or even a H-word bird?

Because I know these, believe it. A pale LBBG would be in the Baltic region a rarity too. I saw only 2 in 18 years on rubbish dumps.

[Ruud Altenburg]

At the last IGM, Geert Groot Koerkamp showed us images from the Bolshoye colony in Russia. Many had adults that were very hard to identify, including dark-mantled birds thought to be heuglini. One of these rings turned up in Lithuania, the other one in Spain! Grzegorz Neubauer went over there this year to do research and ring more birds. Maybe Greg can upload some pictures of dark mantled birds from this colony to compare to?