Hybrid Gulls- Larus sp.
Fourth-winters : North America
4th-years - click on the links to go directly to the bird
Large North America west coast gull are a melting pot of hybrids of various ages and generations with most not being straight forward as one would hope in assigning parentage. Is it a Glaucous-winged Gull at the darker end of the scale to be a genuine bird or is it a hybrid? Is that first-winter dark gull with paler wing-coverts just a variation or is there mixed blood at play. Because of this and the fact I needed two of the gulls for my world gulls list it was major part in me returning to California several times.
I have covered a number of the ages and presumed hybrids in the following pages however as my experience of west coast hybrids is limited to not much more than a few weeks I may be wrong in some of my tentative identifications.
Glaucous-winged Gull, 4th winter:Salainas River Mouth, Monterey, California, USA - 24th November 2009
This bird appears to be far to pale grey above to be a pure Western Gull, even of the form occidentalis. The primaries also are not black but rather sooty coloured indicating that the bird is hybrid. American Herring Gull is ruled out due to the bill shape, size and patterning, the large squarish head and the dark eye. Thus this is a presumed Western x Glaucous-winged Gull.
