glaucoides - kumlieni

(last update: January 26, 2012)

Iceland Gull (glaucoides) 4cy, February 08 2012, Peterhead, Scotland. Picture: Chris Gibbins.

Age 4cy: showing adult-like inner primaries, yellow bill with faint dark spot near the gonys, and several immature patterns on coverts and in the rectrices, indicating 4cy, rather than 5cy. Pattern on (otherwise white) primaries: slightest hint of darker tips, most obvious on P7-P8. Some 3rd-winter glaucoides (in Iceland) have brown on the outer primaries (contrasting with grey inners), but the colour is normally slightly paler still than the (brown) outer primary coverts. Here, the outer primaries look paler (do not contrast much) than outer primary coverts. Also, for 3rd winter Kumlien's (in a European context) it would be nice to see some dark subterminal marks on the outer primaries, not just faint dark outer webs in immature birds. According Dave Brown, whom lives in St John's, Newfoundland, this bird would probably stand out among average kumlieni for:

- the extensively white primaries paired with apparently completely pale eye.
- the lack of sub-terminal spots on the outer 3-4 primaries.
-more adult-looking bill; most sub-adult Kumlien's seem to show quite a bit of black around the gonys, often forming a ring, while only full adults seem to "almost" never show any black in the bill. Also, the quality of the greenish basal 2/3rd's of the bill in these birds is not a color commonly seen in Newfoundland Kumlien's and it may be seen more often in sub-adult glaucoides?

Primary category: --

Iris without obvious speckling, pale yellow.