Gull Question

[kenneth2019]

I took some pictures at Salish Pond while waiting for my wife's medical appointment. I put these two "friendly" gulls as California, which was the only gull not marked as Rare. I posted a picture on a Salish Pond checklist, the picture is being questioned, so not " California".
So is it Glaucous-winged Gull or something.

Edit: Gord has identified the first gull as a hybrid between a Glaucous-winged and Western Gull.

California Gulls, Salish Pond by Kenneth Davis, on Flickr

The Gull below has more black on the bill and tail feathers are grey(er), ? Another Hybrid.


Gull Guestion by Kenneth Davis, on Flickr

[Jon]

I'm surprised California would be the most likely gull on eBird, but probably best not to ID just based on likelyhood 😉

Agree on the first one. The shade of the primaries is between black and the mantle color & the eye is quite dark. I don't have orbital ring colors memorized, however I don't think we can see that well enough in this picture anyways.

The second is either another hybrid or a "pure" glaucous winged.

Shape and size immediately rule out any of the smaller gulls like California, Ring-billed, and Short-billed (aka Mew).

The second bird is an "almost adult" (probably 4th-ish cycle and will be adult later this year?), you can tell it isn't an adult because the secondaries are not the same color as the rest of the back (as you noticed) and the black mark on the bill. Some gulls have black on the bill as an adult, however an adult Western, Herring, or Glaucous-winged would not show this at this time of year if it were an adult.

Since it's not an adult, I'm not sure we can gauge the primaries color to say whether it's a hybrid or not, however to me it's fine for "Glaucous-winged type".

I also don't sweat about the hybrids so much and usually just lump them in with GW. Obviously this isn't "best practice" but I don't see the harm really. Otherwise you can almost never put down GW since hybrids tend to outnumber pure birds, and you need to get a good look at it to rule out any hybrid influences. So in my books: "large gull in flight without getting a good look" goes down as GW in the valley ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[kenneth2019]

Thanks Jon, I agree GW type and the mixed. These two seemed to be paired up, with no sign of offspring. The "hybrid" was on the pond when I arrived, two other gulls arrived and these two drove off the other and proceeded with courtship display.