Subject: Re. Slaty-backed Gull and Dickcissel
Date: Feb 24 00:41:30 1996
From: Jack Bowling - jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca


Fred Bird wrote -

<cut>

>It was about the same size as the GW Gulls. The mantle seemed to be a
>shade or two lighter than the wing tips. The head had a good amount of
>streaking on it and the eye seemed fairly dark. The bill was very yellow.
>It was a little to far away to get a good line on the shape of the bill,
>but the head and over all build was slimmer than the GW Gulls which it
>sat next to. I also couldn't get a good look at the white-spots on the
>primaries. None-the-less, I am sure this was the Slatey-backed that was
>first reported back around Christmas.

Well, the type morph of Slaty-backed Gull has much less winter head-streaking
than a GWGU, and a honey-yellow iris. If you get out to see this gull again,
try to get a handle on the shade of the orbital ring: purplish-red in SBGU
versus orangey in WEGU. Also, the "ring of spots" under the primaries is
another clincher for SBGU.

Mind you, the three North Pacific maritime gulls are coelescing there genetic
material at such a rate that these markers may soon become meaningless.

- Jack



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
CANADA
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca