American Herring Gull (smithsonianus)

(last update: October 30, 2015)

American Herring Gull (smithsonianus) 3cy T04 May 17 2012, Cape May, New Jersey. Picture: Tony Leukering.

See website: The Gulls Of Appledore

T04 was banded as a chick near the Shoal’s Marine Lab office (in Hamilton; see Appledore map tab) in July 2010. Now 3cy, it has some gray in the mantle, and the bill is 3/4 pinkish. Additionally, it’s outer primaries do not have the very-pointed tips typical of birds in their first year of life. However, these large gulls are individually variable in the amount of time that they take to achieve adult plumage. In Europe, where a lot of gull study is conducted (unlike on this side of the Pond), researchers have found that a sizable minority of subadult Herring Gulls (and other large gull species) sport plumage that does not necessarily match the known age of particular individually color-banded birds. This bird, though, was spot on!