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Great Black Backed Gull

Great Black Backed Gull

Photo by PrachiShah
Published on Project Noah
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51.4816, -3.17909

Field Notes

Description:

The Black Backed Gull is the largest gull in the world. Head and underparts streaked with gray brown; face and nape paler. Back patterned blackish-brown, with white edgings forming a checkerboard pattern. Wing flight feathers blackish-brown. Tail white with zigzag bars and spots at base and a broken blackish band near the tip. Bill brownish-black with white tip. Eyes dark; eyering yellowish-brown. Legs dark bluish-gray with some pink tones.

Habitat:

The Great Black-backed Gull is primarily a coastal species. A bird of the North Atlantic, it has been expanding its breeding and wintering ranges farther south along the East Coast and into the Great Lakes.

Species ID Suggestions

European Herring Gull

Larus argentatus

Great Black-backed Gull

Larus marinus

Comments (4)

Prachi, please remove the 2nd and 3rd pictures from this spotting and upload as a new spotting as per Liam's suggestion. He is our bird expert out here.
Your first photo shows a Great Black-backed Gull, but your last two show a European Herring Gull.

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Photographed
PublishedJanuary 17, 2012

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