tags: Franklin's Gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan, Laughing Gull, Larus atricilla, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Franklin's Gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan, and Laughing Gulls, Larus atricilla, photographed the Quintana Beach and Jetty area, Texas. [I will identify these birds for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Let's begin with the bird just right of center, in full profile and clean focus. The heavy, hooked bill tells us we're dealing with a gull, not a tern, and the combination of dark gray upperparts and black legs and feet rules out all of the large white-headed gulls. Try as I might, I can't figure out where this bird's wingtips have gone to, so we'll have to turn to the head for further clues.
Instead of focusing immediately on patterns and colors, it's often good to get a sense of a gull's "expression." To my eye, this bird's steep nape, flat crown, long bill, and small eye make it look mean: if I grabbed it (which might be easier than you'd think given the missing wings), it would fight back, and probably win. The impression of meanness, or at very least a deadly earnestness, is heightened by the dusky wash from the auriculars across the nape.
So which of the non-large, non-white-headed gulls looks mean? The one with long black tarsi; a long, drooping, dark bill; and a dark back, of course: Laughing Gull. In this case, it's a flock of Laughing Gulls.
There's a single outlander in the flock, though. Now carry out the same exercise on the bird in the left foreground; it's facing slightly away from us, but even so the structural differences between this bird and the Laughing Gulls around it are striking. If I picked this bird up (and it probably won't happen, as it seems to have wings), it would probably nestle down in my hands and start to snore gently. The bird's expression is sweet and harmless, the result of a relatively small, quite round head, shorter and straighter bill, and large eye -- its size exaggerated by a noticeable white eyering. The considerably more extensive blackish wash on the head also gives the bird a somehow homier air, as if it were bundled up for the night rather than pulling the hair out of its eyes in preparation for hooliganism. This is a Franklin's Gull, closely related to Laughing Gull and often mistaken for that species. There are reliable plumage differences between the two in every age class, but as always, it's best to start with the characters of shape and structure, which tend to apply across age classes and can make even puzzling plumages identifiable.
- Log in to post comments
Ooh; comparison shot!
I'm going to call that an adult nonbreeding Franklin's Gull on the left (relatively complete black hood; smaller, non-droopy-tipped beak; thick white eye arcs; big, white primary tips; and relatively smaller, more-compact body), and an adult nonbreeding Laughing Gull on the right (less-extensive hood; stouter, droopy-tipped beak; less-extensive white primary tips; bigger body).
I was feeling nervous about going with the dual ID, but then I remembered the Pacific vs. American Golden-Plover post. I also noticed the "I will identify these birds for you tomorrow," which could be consistent with a single or a dual ID, since multiple individual birds are shown, but given that I was already leaning that way, firms up my resolve.
It's in Texas, and I don't see any ringed beaks, so 90% of them will be laughing gulls. ;-)