On Mon, 7 Mar 94 Nestler, James <nestja at wwc.edu> wrote:
>
> Yesterday I was checking out gulls near the Snake-Columbia River
> junction. A ring-billed gull was present, but it did not have dark wing
> tips; they were slate gray on top (with a hint of white edges) and white
> on bottom. The rest of the bird seemed ring-billed gullish: bill size
> and color, head shape and size, overall size, leg color, vocalization,
> behavior. Anyone seen anything like this before? Is is a hybrid of some
> sort? Maybe a lack of pigment?
>
> Thanks for your insights!
>
> Jim Nestler

I have seen two of these things in my time, both on different years at a huge
(30 000- 60 000 pairs) breeding colony in Toronto. One of them was completely
white with a pink bill with a grey ring on it. The other was similar to what
you describe, a Ring-bill with pale grey primaries that were pale underneath.
All of these birds are albinos, just lacking varying degrees of melanin in
the plumage. I have also seen a partial albino Grey Gull in South America,
a Western Gull with white wing patches, and a Great Black Back at Niagara
falls with the outer three primaries of one wing white, the rest of the bird
looked normal. The Great Black-back was seen first as a third winter bird and
re-located the next year as an adult, still showing the same pattern. Does
anyone else have albino gull records?

Al Jaramillo
jaramill at sfu.ca
Vancouver, B.C.