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Larus ID - Costa da Caparica, Portugal (November 2024) (1 Viewer)

Miguel Berkemeier

Well-known member
I'm a bit confused with this one, is it an argentatus?
 

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Hello Miguel,

tfs this bird!
It looks like a good candidate for a subadult Herring Gull for me too.
  • Pink legs without any yellowish tinge in an (sub) adult bird
  • quite pale and evident blue tinge in the mantle
  • well marked head, smudged spots resulting in a pattern not so good for a YLG at least in SW Germany.
  • (I wouldn´t bother too much about the complete band on p5 in an subadult bird??? More confident than it is intended to be)
(a 4cy bird?)
(Looks slightly strange for a Herring Gull for me, but I still think its one and no YLG or Caspian Gull. Reason?)
 
Hello Miguel,

tfs this bird!
It looks like a good candidate for a subadult Herring Gull for me too.
  • Pink legs without any yellowish tinge in an (sub) adult bird
  • quite pale and evident blue tinge in the mantle
  • well marked head, smudged spots resulting in a pattern not so good for a YLG at least in SW Germany.
  • (I wouldn´t bother too much about the complete band on p5 in an subadult bird??? More confident than it is intended to be)
(a 4cy bird?)
(Looks slightly strange for a Herring Gull for me, but I still think its one and no YLG or Caspian Gull. Reason?)
Thanks a lot for your feedback!
 
that's what I meant :). Of course in a 4th cycle that tongue would be shorter but this one is very typical of European HG.

Yes, 4cy type European Herring Gull. Pity it doesn't have a long rectangular tongue to p10 ;) since upperparts look very pale, p5 mark is somewhat w-shaped and p6 shows a bayonett, albeit a shortish one.
Interesting stuff.

Can L. a. argentatus be this pale? Anything's possible I guess.
Jizz-wise & structurally it looks different to the argenteus I see round my house each day. Specifically - when standing it looks long winged or the rear end is attenuated (giving a LBBG or YLG type of jizz). Streaking on the heavy side, especially around the face. Of course, they're a very variable taxon. 🙂🐦
 
Interesting stuff.

Can L. a. argentatus be this pale? Anything's possible I guess.
Jizz-wise & structurally it looks different to the argenteus I see round my house each day. Specifically - when standing it looks long winged or the rear end is attenuated (giving a LBBG or YLG type of jizz). Streaking on the heavy side, especially around the face. Of course, they're a very variable taxon. 🙂🐦
It looks like an argenteus to me, jogresh. Note that it still is subadult and thus streaking is stronger. It looks long winged or gives an attenuated impression by the fact that wings are hanging a bit. If you imagin the black wing tips just sticking out of the tertials without the whole forewing being visible as here you'd realize it is actually short winged: note the short wing projection (distance tail tip - wing tip)!
 
Cheers for the reply. The argenteus round my house also sometimes have their wings slightly drooped too.. perhaps I didn't phrase it well as I'm not referring to primary projection or anything like that. The distance from the birds legs all the way back to the end of the wingtips seems unusually far, like a YLG or intermedius LBBG. However I know nothing about mirrors and primary patterns etc. 👍🙂
 

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