Yellow-legged Gull Larus
michahellis
This 1st
winter Yellow-legged Gull was present on the VAM rubbish tip on
The reason
why I picked this bird out of a crowd were the 2nd
generation wingcoverts of this bird (with the same anchor-pattern as in the
scapulars). This is a very good ID-feature for this species and Caspian Gull,
because, in this amount, this is never shown by Herring Gull. Problem is,
however, that not every YLG or CG shows this. Once seen, other fieldmarks fall into place: the all-dark, blunt-tipped
bill, pale head and underparts with faint mask round the eye, the pale-grey
scapulars with the bold double anchor, dark tertials with narrow pale tip
(often worn off). The folded primaries and tailband
are of a deeper black than in Herring Gull.
Back to the gull-index
Back to the main page