Laughing Gull with ORANGE BILL in Mexico !! (1 Viewer)

[Valéry Schollaert]

Hi all,

I published here 7 photos of a unusual gull in a group of Laughing Gull : Orange-bille Laughing Gull ?

Photos were taken today in Ciudad del Carmen (Campeche), Mexico.

Is it a aberrant Laughing Gull or some hybrid ?

Many thanks !

 

[Butty]

Looks fine for laughing gull otherwise (bill perhaps slightly deep/long?) - including wing-pattern. So, 'laughing gull with pigment problems' seems a neater and more-plausible explanation than involving anything else's genes.

 

[Microtus]

I agree with Butty.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Looks fine for laughing gull otherwise (bill perhaps slightly deep/long?) - including wing-pattern. So, 'laughing gull with pigment problems' seems a neater and more-plausible explanation than involving anything else's genes.

Does it have a deformed right foot, first two shots appear so but in others it looks ok?

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

somewhere a few years ago , at Flickr or pbase I think, there was a photo series of an aberrant laughing gull with bright red bill and legs . darker red than in yours but I think generally similar.

also no sign of hybridisation. so it seems sometimes that happens

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

Does it have a deformed right foot, first two shots appear so but in others it looks ok?

Thank you guys, very helpul. Yes Andy, right foot is deformed indeed.

 

[Tired]

Interesting find. The foot looks like maybe something bit part of it off- perhaps some big fish? Or I suppose entanglement and strangulation is an option, though it would be an odd trick to tangle only part of a webbed foot and lose the amount shown.

 

[KC Foggin]

The one's I see have more of a red bill but I suppose this could be a stage of growth?

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Maybe the foot has been bitten of by a turtle- well , maybe not a snapping turtle but something smaller like a red-eared slider ? I have seen a few damages in mallard and goose feet in parks in Germany where people released quite a lot of unwanted pet red-eared sliders...

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

Thank you again for the last comments. Cheers !