Gulls -- from the Canary Islands
(c) Harry J Lehto
Photographed in Las Galletas, Tenerife, February 1998.
Figure 1. The bird above bird is a normal 1st winter Herring gull type bird encountered
in Tenerife. Some people call it Larus (argenratus/michaellis) atlantis.
I don't take any stand on the taxonomic state.
Figure 2. Above The bird on the right shows a typical L (a/m) atlantis in 1st
winter plumage, but what is the bird on the left? Note different shape of
bill, head and length of legs. The same bird in flight is in Fig 3.
Figure 3. Is this cachinnans?
The answer seems to be NO. The mantle feather coloration doesn't fit, neither
do really such things as the look and the length of the feet. Well, there were
TWO of these kinds of birds present (both photographed, but not scanned).
The other bird had a shorter bill, but still noticeably longer than the local
atlantis'. Both individuals swam much more buoyantly than the several dozen
atlantis gulls presents. I don't think that this (and the other) bird are
atlantis, but they may still be some sort of a michaellis type gull.
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