Gull ID Help Please

[Dickson Smith]

Saw and photographed this gull out on the Bear River Refuge today. My first thought was that it was a Iceland, (Thayer's Gull). But after getting home and looking at the photos I'm leaning more towards a Glaucous-winged do to the light color of the secondaries and primaries, solid dark bill and eye and the pink legs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I posted it on ebird as an Iceland but I would like to make sure I'm posting the correct bird.

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Dickson Smith

[Cliff and Lisa Weisse]

Hi Dickson,

That's a cool looking bird and I would say you were right the first time, or maybe glaucoides rather than thayeri. The really thin bill and long primary projection don't fit Glaucous-winged, or any hybrids with GWGU. The overall paleness and lack of checkering in the greater coverts, extensive pale edges of primaries, and apparently pale centered tertials suggest glaucoides. The tail also looks quite pale but I'm not sure you can see anything beyond the edges in the photos. All this is complicated by fading so it's a tough call. The scapulars seem a bit dark and sooty for glaucoides but that's the only thing that really jumps out at me to argue against it,and they could be darker because they're fresher feathers (they would typically be fairly fresh on either ssp.) that were not subject to as much fading as the rest of the plumage. Either way I'm confident it's an Iceland Gull.

Cliff

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Cliff and Lisa Weisse
Island Park, Idaho
cliffa...@octobersetters.com