Chris Maack wrote:

>So maybe someone can tell me if very young (nestling) Herring or
>Glaucous-winged Gulls could have all black legs and feet. We got an
>orphan at Bird TLC which was confidently identified as a Black-legged
>Kittiwake (black legs, right?) but at a slightly later date started to
>look like a juvenile big gull with the heavy beak that has a slanting
>facet on the lower mandible. Before it even lost its down it was bigger
>than any two kittiwakes. Legs still black. Sorry I can't provide other
>details; it was given to someone to release on the coast before I got to
>see its first real feathers.

I think that very young juveniles of the big gulls have black legs that
then begin quickly to turn reddish. I don't have any photos here to
support that conclusion, just the depths of my memory (scary). I'll try to
remember to check my photos of nestling gulls in a colony (anyone else have
any at hand?).

>Any tips appreciated. Also, is there a good reference work for identifying
>such young gulls?

Not that I know of, but as soon as a young bird has its post-downy plumage
it will look the same as an older juvenile, so plumage characters should
work. Bill and leg color have been oversold as gull field marks, partly
because Peterson used them as the way to categorize species and species
groups and paid little attention to plumage characters such as wingtip
color and pattern that were even more useful. They vary just enough from
the norm even in adults to engender some confusion, and their fairly
variable change with age adds that much more.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416