Heermann's Gull heermannii

(last update: 23-01-2018 )

Coordinators:
John Cant
Mars Muusse

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1cy June
1cy July
1cy Aug
1cy Sept
1cy Oct
1cy Nov
1cy Dec

2cy Jan
2cy Feb
2cy March
2cy April
2cy May
2cy June
2cy July
2cy Aug
2cy Sept
2cy Oct
2cy Nov
2cy Dec

3cy Jan
3cy Feb
3cy March
3cy April
3cy May
3cy June
3cy July
3cy Aug
3cy Sept
3cy Oct
3cy Nov
3cy Dec

adult Jan
adult Feb
adult March
adult April
adult May
adult June
adult July
adult Aug
adult Sept
adult Oct
adult Nov
adult Dec

1st cycle (1CY): August

Juvenile birds, aged by the white fringed wing-coverts. Most birds show post-juvenile moult commencement in fresh dark grey feathers. Moult normally include (a variable number of) wing-coverts.

First Cycle.

Juvenile (July-Sept.): dark sooty brown overall, slightly paler on underparts, with smoky gray throat. Upperparts with scaly buff edgings - varying individually from very broad to fairly narrow; subscapular and tertial tips can bleach to form pale crescents. Flight feathers blackish, secondaries, inner primaries, and tail narrowly tipped buffy white, which often wears away.

IN FLIGHT: dark brown overall with blackish flight feathers, bleached upperwing coverts sometimes forming a paler mid-wing panel; underwings dark. Eyes dark, legs blackish. Bill blackish with dull flesh base, becoming dull flesh pink with black tip. Variable PA1 molt (Sept.-Mar.) often includes upperwing coverts and, in tropical populations, can include primaries.(5) First alternate plumage: head, neck, chest, and flanks dark sooty brown, often mixed with faded juvenal feathers; eye-crescents brown to pale gray and throat whitish; some birds attain whitish flecks in face. Back and variable number of upperwing coverts and tertials dark sooty gray-brown, new subscapulars and tertials tipped pale gray. Retained juvenal wing coverts often bleach to a contrasting pale panel. Bill flesh pink with black tip, often some gray-green basally.

Heermann's Gull heermannii 1st cycle (1CY), August 29 2017, Half Moon Bay, California USA. Picture: Alvaro Jaramillo. First cycle Heermann's Gull. Already a lot of molt in back and scapulars, flanks, head and neck. Coverts are missing and will surely be molted in soon.	Heermann's Gull heermannii 1st cycle (2CY), January 09 2016, Half Moon Bay, California USA. Picture: Alvaro Jaramillo.
Heermann's Gull heermannii 1st cycle (1CY), December 15 2017, Pismo beach, California USA. Picture: Alex Abela.	Heermann's Gull heermannii 1st cycle (1CY), August 06 2017, Pismo beach, California USA. Picture: Alex Abela.