Mew Gull Larus canus canus; heinei; kamtschatschensis; brachyrhynchus

(last update: March 12, 2012)

Mew Gull heinei adult, March 24 2012, Debrecen, Hungary. Picture: Papp Gábor.

Strong heinei candidate:

1. Full (and rather deep) black band on p5
2. Much black also p4 (both webs in fact, which is very encouraging)
3. Black on p8 nearly all way to primary coverts on both webs
4. Black on p7 extending on outer web 75-80 % of way to primary coverts
5. Black P6 (outer web) extending more than 50% of way to primary coverts
6. Pale eye

Secondary characters also are lots of black at tip of P10, no mirror on P8 and small mirror P9 (these features overlap a bit more with canus, hence only supporting). Upperparts look to be dark and lacking bluish cast of canus, but of course this is tricky/impossible from photos to comment on with any certainty.