American Herring Gull (smithsonianus)

(last update: October 30, 2015)

American Herring x Glaucous Gull ("Nelson's Gull) juvenile (1CY) November 08 2009, Palmer Landfill, USA. Picture: Kirk Zufelt.

See Kirk's BLOG. In the Anchorage area it can be hard to find any pure large gulls the majority being Glaucous-winged X Herring hybrids. Fortunately in the east hybrids are still an oddity and vastly outnumbered by pure birds.

Here, in many respects a Glaucous Gull, but one with dark pigmentation in the outer primaries (Herring influence) and the pattern of the scapulars is very different from pure Glaucous Gull.