Hello Fellow Birders,

I have a photograph of a bird and I am asking for help to identify the
species. The photograph can be viewed with a web browser at
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/People/Faculty/britt/unkn_gull.html

I have also posted this message to 2 European bird networks and out of the
20 replies I have received half of them suggest a Sabine's gull (larus
sabini) and the other half are split between a Little gull (larus
minutus) or a wader/shorebird (sanderling, phalarope, turnstone). If you
are interested I also have a few other photos (scanning did not do justice
to them) from Svalbard at
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/People/Faculty/britt/svalbard.html

[Note: I am a novice birder and photographer so please consider all of my
description below as provisional. I apologise for the poor quality
photgraph but it may still be possible to make an identification.]

Observation: This bird was observed on June 10, 1997 from Longyearbyen,
Svalbard. It was flying alone across Adventfjorden toward Isfjorden on a
straight coarse with a regularly paced wingbeat. (It appeared to be going
somewhere, not feeding while it was observed.) It flew at about 5-10
meters above the water at a constant altitude. The weather was overcast
but calm. The photo was taken facing north in the early afternoon. The
bird was approximately 100 meters offshore when the photo was taken with a
200mm lens. [The scanned image has been sharpened but the color was not
modified in any way.]

Description: The head is black and the breast white. The feet are dark.
It is difficult to say for certain that the bill is black but it does
appear dark in the photo. The upper side of the wing may show an 'M'
pattern of dark on grey, but it may also be a lighting effect. The back
edge of the wing is white. The back looks brownish (but may be due to the
film). The wing tip may be black.

I would appreciate any help in identification of the bird.

Please send replies to me at britt at geophys.washington.edu
and also a copy to Georg Bangjord in Svalbard [ gba at lby.npolar.no ].

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitchell J. Brittnacher Phone: (206) 616-5796
Research Scientist Fax: (206) 685-3815

_/ _/ _/ _/ University of Washington
_/ _/ _/ _/ Geophysics Program
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Box 351650
_/_/ _/ _/ Seattle, WA 98195

britt at geophys.washington.edu
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/People/Faculty/britt/