glaucoides - kumlieni
(last update: January 26, 2012)
Adult Glaucous Gull X Herring Gull ("Nelson's Gull") adult, January 02 2009, New Jersey, USA. Pictures: J. Gilbert.
Adult Glaucous X Herring hybrid found about 4 mi NE of Belmar, NJ.
These two species hybridise in northwestern North America (Spear 1987), Iceland (lngolfsson 1970, 1987, but cf. Snell 1991b), and eastern Canada (Mactavish pers. obs.). Although the range of plumage variation for this hybrid combination remains to be determined, some presumed hybrid Glaucous x Herring hybrids resemble Kumlien’s Gull in wingtip pattern, wingtip tone and upperpart tone (pers. obs,). Despite potential plumage similarities these hybrids differ from Kumlien`s in their larger size, orbital ring colour (from orange-yellow to reddish orange) and their longer and heavier bills - which should be obvious, especially with other species for comparison.
