Yellow-legged Gull - Larus michahellis

(last update: October 08 2013)

Coordinators:
Delfín González
Gabriel Martín
Antonio Gutierrez
Amir Ben Dov
Mars Muusse

Larus michahellis - adult May

This website deals with the Yellow-legged Gull taxon michahellis, which is a common migrant from July to December in NW Europe. After extensive expansion of the breeding population during the last three decades, it nowadays can be found breeding in Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain in mixed couples with both Herring Gull (argenteus) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (graellsii). There are subtle differences between the populations from the Mediterranean, Atlantic coast of Portugal and Morocco and from the islands in the Atlantic. Most pronounced differences can be found in the taxon atlantis, now regarded as full species by some authors and birds along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsular: lusitanius. Both atlantis and lusitanius are treated in their own sections on this website.

General description

At the start of the calendar year, only very limited numbers of adult Yellow-legged Gulls spend the winter months as north as NW France. At the dumping site of Dannes, near Le Portel, large mixed flocks of mainly Herring Gulls (1,000's) from NW and N Europe can be found including adult Yellow-legged Gulls (few tens in January 2002). Other spots in NW France which hold numbers of adult Yellow-legged Gulls in other seasons, e.g. Etaples, Le Portel and Boulogne-sur-Mer only hold single birds in mid-winter. Scattered records in the Netherlands involve single birds along the coast at Westkapelle, Maasvlakte and IJmuiden. Inland records can be expected from dumping sites and along the rivers, mainly in the southeast along the Meuse. Numbers hardly exceed ten a day in this period of the year, although YLG aggregate on some spots with few tens. Numbers remain low in February, March, April and May, but increase after breeding. By June, over 700 Yellow-legged Gulls can be found at Dannes (year 2003).

Features of adult michahellis

As can be expected, there is no moult going on in adult birds, from January to April. The average adult michahellis finishes primary moult by the end of October. By January, the outer primaries may show slight wear already, maybe caused by their common habit to feed on dumping sites in NW Europe. The upper tertials and inner coverts may show wear as well, as they were moulted early September last year and are over four months of age already. The winter head streaking, which was obvious and concentrated on the ear-coverts, around the eye and up to the crown by September and October, has been worn away by mid winter, leaving the snow white appearance of adult michahellis as mentioned in many bird guides. Mid winter adult michahellis is the classic, "well-known" plumage of Yellow-legged Gull and in most birds, this plumage shows easy clues for identification:
- Snow-white head with sometimes remaining head streaking around the eye;
- Red orbital ring and clear yellow iris;
- Yellow bill, sometimes orangey-yellow, with the red gonydeal spot which slightly extends on the upper mandible and a clear, obvious gonydeal angle;
- In profile the head and neck are strong and powerful, michahellis is rather high breasted with long wing and long legs;
- Upper-parts grey tone normally ranks between 6 and 7 Kodak Grey, neutral grey. Michahellis lacks the blue tinge as can be found in argentatus;
- Michahellis shows relatively much black in the wingtip, normally with a complete black sub-terminal band on p5 of even broadness. Sometimes there is even an isolated black angular spot on the outer-web of p4, although this is normally absent in adults. The black patch on p10 is relatively broad at it's most narrow point, at the feather's edge of the inner-web. Here, at the feather's edge, the black patch is still as broad as or only slightly less broad than the white mirror on p10. In other words, the grey area of the inner-web is limited to the basal half of the visible primary in most birds. Nevertheless, the grey patch of the inner-web may run further down and, when combined with a broken sub-terminal band on p10, may resemble nominate Larus argentatus. Normally p10 has a complete sub-terminal band, but it may be broken at the centre, creating two isolated spots at the feather's edges. A broken sub-terminal band on p10 may occur more often in eastern populations than in West Mediterranean populations (according to e.g. Jonsson, Alula 3/98). Normally, p9 has a mirror as well, on the inner-web, not reaching the feather's edge on the outer-web;
- And of course, as the name suggests: deep yellow legs.

Michahellis at Le Portel, NW France.

Le Portel doesn't hold a large colony of Yellow-legged Gulls in the near surrounding. Colour-ring and metal ring recoveries of birds in NW France and at Westkapelle (most in the period July - September) reveal that birds originate from southern France (the Mediterranean coast near Marseille), eastwards to northern Italy and from Croatia to Switzerland. Whether other populations are involved in NW France as well, still has to be found out. Future colour-ring projects may answer this question. At Le Portel, especially the male Yellow-legged Gulls from southern France can be identified readily easily as they are huge, powerful birds, in profile not unlike nominate Larus argentatus from Scandinavia. However, scanning through a flock of Yellow-legged Gulls, some birds may be appear small-billed, round-headed with a 'friendly' facial expression and consequently they may be much more difficult to identify. Yellow-legged Gull populations with the smallest measurements can be found on the Atlantic Islands. See also the website of Nick Rossiter.

By March, many adult Yellow-legged Gulls return to the breeding grounds. The breeding season starts early for this species which breeds in southern Europe compared to argenteus, graellsii and of course compared to intermedius and argentatus, Fledged juveniles which dispersed over 500 km already can be found at Le Portel in July.

Tables

data from: Malling Olsen, K. & Larsson, H. 2004 Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America. London: Christopher Helm.

MEASUREMENTS
Lengths in mm; weights in g. Own data based on skins in AMNH, MCZ, NHM, NNH, NRK, USNM, UZM, ZMA. Michahellis Mediterranean and N Black Sea. Atlantis Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores.

WING    
L. m. michahellis    
Adult male 425-472 (449.3) 36
Adult female 415-472 (436.0) 19
First-year male 415-447 (432.7) 8
First-year female 408-450 (429.6) 8
Note Adults, Camargue, S France, 418-485 (mean male 465, female 440; n=160) (Isenmann 1973); Spanish Mediterranean 411-478 (mean 451, n=107); Spanish Atlantic and Cantabria 337-452 (mean 421, n=57) (A. Bermejo in litt.).
     
L. m. atlantis    
Adult male 426-453 (439.6) 19
Adult female 408-445 (421.3) 17
First-year male 408-446 (427.7) 6
First-year female 391-420 (411.0) 5

.

BILL    
L. m. michahellis    
Adult male 51.6-59.9 (54.4) 36
Adult female 48.0-55.9 (52.2) 19
First-year male 48.8-56.8 (52.7) 8
First-year female 43.0-54.5 (49.0) 9
Note Adults, Camargue, S France, male 56-65 (mean 61, n=80), adult female 50-61 (65) (mean 56, n=80) (Isenmann 1973); Spanish Mediterranean 46-67 (mean 56 n=107), Spanish Atlantic and Cantabria 46-64 (mean 55, n=5 7) (A. Bermejo in litt.).
     
L. m. atlantis    
Adult male 49.6-57.0 (53.4) 18
Adult female 45.5-54.1 (49.1) 17
First-year male 47.8-56.5 (52.5) 5
First-year female 44.5-51.4 (47.6) 4

.

BILL DEPTH AT GONYS    
L. m. michahellis    
Adult male 17.0-21.5 (19.5) 36
Adult female 16.6-20.9 (18.0) 19
First-year male 15.9-18.7 (16.9) 8
First-year female 14.5-18.5 (16.8) 9
 
L. m. atlantis    
Adult male 16.7-20.6 (19.1) 18
Adult female 16.4-19.1 (17.4) 16
First-year male 17.0-20.1 (18.5) 5
First-year female 15.6-17.7 (16.8) 4

.

BILL DEPTH AT BASE OF BILL  
L. m. michahellis    
Adult male 17.5-22.4 (20.0) 36
Adult female 16.7-21.9 (18.5) 19
First-year male 17.0-19.0 (18.2) 8
First-year female 15.2-18.5 (17.2) 9
 
L. m. atlantis    
Adult male 18.3-21.1 (19.8) 18
Adult female 16.0-19.9 (17.8) 16
First-year male 16.5-19.6 (18.3) 5
First-year female 15.8-18.3 (16.9) 4

.

GONYS LENGTH    
L. m. michahellis    
Adult male 13.8-18.9 (16.0) 36
Adult female 13.0-17.1 (14.9) 19
First-year male 14.0-16.6 (15.4) 8
First-year female 11.6-16.1 (14.7) 8
Note Spanish Mediterranean 16.0-22.6 (mean 19.5, n=107); Spanish Atlantic and Cantabria 11.7-20.7 (mean 18.0, n=57) (A. Bermejo in litt.).
 
L. m. atlantis    
Adult male 14.4-17.8 (16.3) 18
Adult female 13.5-16.9 (15.3) 16
First-year male 14.2-18.7 (16.4) 5
First-year female 14.4-15.9 (15.0) 4

 

TARSUS    
L. m. michahellis    
Adult male 60.2-73.8 (67.6) 36
Adult female 58.3-72.6 (63.2) 19
First-year male 62.5-68.8 (66.4) 8
First-year female 59.6-68.9 (65.2) 9
Note Adults, Camargue, France: male 65-80 (mean 72, n=80), female 60-75 (mean 67, n=80) (Isenmann 1973); Spanish Mediterranean 51.6-79.5 (mean 64.6, n=l07); Spanish Atlantic and Cantabria 55.4-75.0 (mean 64, n=57) (A. Bermejo in litt.).
 
L. m. atlantis    
Adult male 61.3-68.6 (65.5) 18
Adult female 56.6-63.9 (61.4) 17
First-year male 58.6-68.5 (65.3) 5
First-year female 56.6-67.1 (60.3) 4

Weight L. m. michahellis S France adult male 1,040-1,500, adult female 800-1,400 (Isenmann 1973); Spanish Mediterranean 550-1,225; Spanish Atlantic and Cantabria 420-1,600 (A. Bermejo in litt.).

adult michahellis in April, ringed in the Netherlands. (93737 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis 13+cy CU9 Missouriweg - Maasvlakte, the Netherlands, April 29 2002 (51.59N,04.02E). At least from the early 90's, but maybe during the 80's as well, Yellow-legged Gulls (L. michahellis) can be found in the breeding colonies of Europoort, Rotterdam.

juvenile LBBG in October, ringed in Norway. (131273 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis 16CY male OO May 19 2007, Neeltje Jans, the Netherlands. Formerly known EAY8.
2cy michahellis in August, ringed in Switzerland.presumed hybrid Yellow-legged Gull michahellis x Herring Gull argenteus 9.8 adult, March 2014 - April 2015, Maasvlakte, the Netherlands. Picture: Merijn Loeve.
2cy michahellis in August, ringed in Switzerland.Yellow-legged Gull michahellis J.N adult, May & September 2013, Wijk bij Duurstede & Wageningen, the Netherlands. Picture: PieterGeert Gelderblom & Merijn Loeve.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult male, April & May 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
Mixed pair of michahellis x armenicus.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 06 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 06 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 24 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 23 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 24 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 24 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 24 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 23 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 30 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 09 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 09 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 09 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult & pulli, May 06 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 06 2011, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis nest locations, 2010, Tel Aviv - University Garden, Israel. Picture: Amir Ben Dov.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 23 2012, Sant Carles de la Rapita - Ebro Delta, Cataluna, Spain. Picture: Chris Gibbins.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 23 2012, Sant Carles de la Rapita - Ebro Delta, Cataluna, Spain. Picture: Chris Gibbins.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 23 2012, Sant Carles de la Rapita - Ebro Delta, Cataluna, Spain. Picture: Chris Gibbins.
adult michahellis in April. (61415 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 22 2007, Lago di Como, Italy. Picture: Pier Carlo Batte.
adult michahellis in July. (62792 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 04 2012, Gibraltar, UK. Picture: Ita Martin.
adult michahellis in May. (65741 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 03 2003, Voorhaven, Zeebrugge, Belgium (51.59N 04.02E).
adult michahellis in May. (88525 bytes)Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 03 2003, Voorhaven, Zeebrugge, Belgium (51.59N 04.02E).
Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 25 2012, Croatia. Picture: Luka Jurinovic.
Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 25 2012, Croatia. Picture: Luka Jurinovic.
Yellow-legged Gull michahellis adult, May 25 2012, Croatia. Picture: Luka Jurinovic.