Subject: Great Black-backed Gull
Date: Jan 20 21:27:38 2004
From: Phillip Pickering - philliplc at harborside.com


Sorry about that.

By 'broken forehead' I was just referring to the bird having
a noticeable angle to the head slope in front of the eye. That
is a confusing term I guess.

This feature is somewhat subject to posture, but in the photos
where the Renton bird appears to be standing in a normal
posture this angle appears consistently further out in front
of the eye and appears noticeably steeper than it does on
most GBBG that show it in similar posture. Many GBBG
don't show much break in angle to the forward part of the
head at all.

Contra Gene's opinion, I don't see any of the gulls in Grant
as showing a comparatively sharp break in angle so far out in
front of the eye, and most have a noticeably flatter angle where
the forehead meets the bill (in a normal standing posture).

The 2 gulls Ryan posted about do show a head shape that
approaches that of the Renton gull in this respect, although
my impression is that they are in a minority, and the adult's
head is turned quite a bit which might be compressing the
head shape.

Cheers,

Phil