Which Gull?

I’m a bit perplexed with this one. Bill colour looks to be a 1st year bird but doesn’t seem heavy enough, and plumage looks too clean for one of the larger gulls. Bill colour and shape also looks wrong (to me) for juvenile BHG or Common Gull. No collar or wing bar as I would have expected to see in juvenile Kittiwake but overall shape and ‘feel’ says Kittiwake to me??? Any opinions appreciated.

  • I'm not very good with Gulls so will say hmmm

    Juvenile Herring Gull :-)

  • Thanks for the reply, BamBam,and please accept my apologies for taking so long to respond. I'm not actually convinced that it's a Herring Gull, (although it has to be said that I've been wrong on many, many occasions) :-)

    To me the bird looks too clean for a Herring Gull (combined with the black bill normally found on 1st year birds). Also the legs look to be very dark which is why Kittiwake had been in my head (although I think I’ve probably ruled that out due to lack of a collar). It’s been suggested to me the possibility of it being a young Mediterranean Gull but I really haven’t seen enough of them to be able to make any type of decision regarding this, and I’m not entirely sure of the likelihood of seeing one in Scotland in July? Sadly I didn’t get any shots of the top of the wings which would likely have helped in positively ID’ing this particular bird. I’ve asked a few different people who are vastly more knowledgeable than myself but as yet no-one seem to be able to say categorically which bird this may be. It may indeed turn out to be something very common, but it still has me a bit baffled. :-/

  • Herring Gull was a guess on my part Paul.I really struggle with Gulls other than the more common one's and when calender year birds are

    thrown into the mix then i give up :-)

  • I have been informed by two very knowledgeable friends that the bird in question is actually a young Mediterranean Gull.

    At last, I can get a good night’s sleep. :-)

  • I’ve lit up the green tick myself for this one, it would have niggled at me if it was still red and the bird had been ID’d. :-)