Subject: [Tweeters] Swallow-tailed gull records
Date: Aug 31 10:56:35 2017
From: Louise Rutter - louise.rutter at eelpi.gotdns.org


Googling is giving me two California records of swallow-tailed gull, one of
which was accepted by ABA (the other was a single observer from a boat with
no photos). There appears to be no evidence that anyone keeps this species
captive in the US. They are pelagic when not breeding in the Galapagos
Islands (plus a few pairs which nest on an island off Colombia), but they
usually head south from there past Peru and Chile, which leads to questions
of whether far northern vagrants are ship assists. I'll be curious to follow
the debates that this bird will lead to.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland