American Herring Gull (smithsonianus)

(last update: October 30, 2015)

American Herring Gull (smithsonianus) adult, February 21 2015, Brownsville landfill, TX. Picture: Martin Reid.

White-headed bird. Orbital ring seems to be reddish from a distance (but here the orbital ring is not reddish but orange and not close to reddish at short range). On the few birds that have orange rather than yellow orbitals, they look reddish at a distance - you need a closer look to see that they are less red than it appears from farther away.