Hi,

Back in 1969 or so there was a pure white Western Gull resident in the
Farallontw Island gull colony. I believe the soft parts were normally
pigmented but the plumage was pure white.

Gene Hunn.

On Tue, 8 Mar 1994 Alvaro Patricio Jaramillo <jaramill at sfu.ca> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>
>
>