Black-backed Gull –*Greater or Lesser? 13.10.2016, Burlington, Ontario (1 Viewer)

[D Halas]

I saw this gull earlier today in Burlington, Ontario, on Lake Ontario. It's clearly a juvenile or first-winter black-backed gull, but I'm having trouble deciding if it's a somewhat stocky-looking Lesser Black-backed, or a smallish Greater Black-backed. It was a fair distance away, so the first two pictures are unfortunately the clearest ones I was able to get of it; the third one shows the gull close to a Ring-billed Gull, to give a sense of its proportionate size.

 

[Tim100]

Greater. Lesser would be closer to RBG size.

 

[KC Foggin]

Lesser is my thought.

 

[lou salomon]

it's a lesser black-backed gull.

 

[Tim100]

Yes I'm being stupid. Thinking LBBG was smaller from memory. Proportion compared to RBG is spot on. GBBG would be a fair chunk bigger. Massive birds!

 

[D Halas]

That would appear to be a consensus, then. Thank you all!