Saturday, March 1, 2014

And now for something completely different?


While walking in Parque da Fontenova in Aveiro (Portugal) on February 25, my I caught a somewhat strange white bird among several Black-headed Gulls that were foraging on the grass. At closer inspection it appeared it was also a Black-headed Gull, but with a colouring defect in its wings (http://observado.org/waarneming/view/81965799). Unfortunately, I wasn’t carrying a camera. Today March 1 the dogs got a walk in the same park and also the gull appeared there again. Coincidentally I ran into Pedro Moreira, who luckily brought his camera with him as he was already on the lookout for this particular bird. Pedro sent me the following photos.




Partially leucistic Black headed Gull Parque da Fontenova in Aveiro, Portugal. March 1, 2013 (photos by Pedro Moreira).

As far as defects in colouring go, this type of deviation seems to occur more regularly among this species. See i.e. http://www.frankmajoor.nl/kokmeeuwen-kleurafwijkingen-1-nl.shtml. Not as completely different as I first thought, but still a beautiful bird to see.

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