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Topic: Sea Gulls in the Harbour (Read 1060 times) |
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edselchan2
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Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« on: Feb 13th, 2003, 9:26am » |
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More than ten sea gull found in the harbour in between TST and Hung Hom, they have yellow bill and legs, it may be Yellow-Legged Gull, but i am not sure.s
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miket
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Re: Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« Reply #1 on: Feb 15th, 2003, 11:44pm » |
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More likely Heuglin's Gull of the form taimyrensis. Yellow-legged Gulls, of the form mongolicus, usually have pinkish legs.
Mike Turnbull
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Mike Turnbull
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Re: Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« Reply #3 on: Feb 17th, 2003, 7:20pm » |
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Looks like Yellow-legged Gull Larus cachinnans mongolicus to me, due to its fairly pale upperparts, complete lack of head streaking and pinkish legs. I had a probable in flight in East Lamma Channel yesterday; in flight they show a much paler underside to primaries and secondaries than Larus heuglini taimyrensis.
Mike Turnbull
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Etta
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Re: Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« Reply #4 on: Feb 18th, 2003, 3:58pm » |
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Dear Mike,
Thanks for the identification.
Best,
Etta
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YIP Chi Lap [Beta]
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Re: Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« Reply #5 on: Feb 20th, 2003, 12:30am » |
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I was in the field spotting the bird and thought that its leg looks more like dark pink / dark red in color than yellow --- question: do yellow-legged gulls really have yellow legs?
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Mike Turnbull
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Re: Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« Reply #6 on: Feb 20th, 2003, 9:04pm » |
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This is all clearly and understandably getting a bit confusing but the photographed bird is a Yellow-legged Gull of the form mongolicus , because it has pinkish legs, as can be clearly seen in your photograph+the other features mentioned in my earlier post.
The very first message in this thread referred to birds identified as possibly Yellow-legged Gulls because they had yellow legs. My first reply was an attempt to point out that the locally occurring form of Yellow-legged Gull does not have yellow legs. The most common form of "large white-headed gull" in HK, Heuglin's Gull of the form taimyrensis, does in fact have yellow legs and thus this is probably the most likely explanation of what tose first birds were.
Clear??
Mike T.
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YIP Chi Lap [Beta]
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Re: Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« Reply #7 on: Feb 22nd, 2003, 1:37am » |
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Thanks. Your reply prompted me to look up bird guides and, very interestingly, a number of them explicitly mentioned something like "the identification of gulls is extremely complex, as all characteristics overlap with rare individual Herring Gulls." [Sibley guide] or "The systematics and identification of all forms of Herring Gull L. argentatus and Lesser Black-backed Gull L. fuscus occuring worldwide have received much attention in recent years. [......] Among the most perplexing taxa of all are those that occur or are likely to occur in South-East Asia, where understanding of the problem is based, to some extent, on guesswork" [Robson, Birds of SEAsia]
Is the following correct?
Larus cachinnans mongolicus: pinkish leg, fairly pale upperparts.
Larus heuglini taimyrensis: yellow leg
What are the most common "large gulls" in Hong Kong?
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Mike Turnbull
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Re: Sea Gulls in the Harbour
« Reply #9 on: Feb 23rd, 2003, 8:41am » |
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Re: Is the following correct?
Larus cachinnans mongolicus: pinkish leg, fairly pale upperparts.
Larus heuglini taimyrensis: yellow leg
Yes, and taimyrensis has relatively darker upperparts. Also, the underwing patterning can be useful indicator (see earlier post) and presence or absence of head-streaking is relevant.
Re: What are the most common "large gulls" in Hong Kong?
L. h. taimyrensis is the dominant form
Id of these gull forms is indeed difficult, and the above are really just indicators, to be used within a known geographical context. That is to say, a simplified statement such as "pinkish leg, fairly pale upperparts" can only be used to indicate a bird is probably mogolicus in our region, not necessarily elsewhere.
Mike Turnbull
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