BTO Bird ID - Adult black-backed gulls

[@lewigy]

I live in North Wales (Nr Rhyl). I love the Gulls, but most people hate them sadly. I'm totally mesmerized by the pure elegance of their flight. They are good parents and very clever. Somebody shouted at me for feeding them "I'll be knocking on your door then, when one of those rips my baby out of its pram". I went up to him and said how old are you he replied 21. I told him that most of these gulls are older than you... they where here 1st.

[@lewigy]

Also i'd like to say I'm 43. When i was young the Gulls where seen feeding on starfish and crabs also fish. WE HAVE HARDLY ANY LEFT. The fishermen have trawled up the ocean floor destroying the food chain. I can see it with my eyes hardly any starfish etc. So from my viewpoint, i see the Gulls scavenging for food in town and in bins etc. That's why they swoop and dive nr people (and grab the odd sausage roll LOL). They are just adapting to "Needing" to eat!! I love the Tap Dance they have mastered to trick worms into thinking its raining.

[@rileyhiggins9734]

,,

[@seagullsaga6587]

If you live in Rhyl & love the Gulls, I have a friend there who owns an organisation called ‘Foundation for Feathered Friends.” She goes out daily feeding all the Gull colonies & the other birds. She also rescues the injured Gulls to be rehabbed & then facilitates their re release. She needs volunteers & I can’t get back up there until the Summer. I have my own colonies to care for here in Barry on the southern coast. You’d be perfect as you already have an understanding of Gulls. Even if you can only spare an hour or an afternoon per week.

[@SharkyGull]

I’m sorry, but who else LOVES these birds ! I am so fascinated in their flight and calls. Whenever there is a seagull, I would always be the only one to look up and actually enjoy the presence of these elegant birds. It’s sad to see that most of these birds are hated. 😢❤

[@jamezall]

Love them too. We have Lesser black-backed gulls nesting on our roof currently (we live in a flat with a very large flat roof). They are very noisy, but I love their attitude 😊

[@onse8982]

Only if they didn’t shit on my car 50 times a night

[@neilgutteridge6405]

Seagulls are fantastic birds......its idiotic humans that cause the problems gulls are hated for.

[@thebaconsnake]

I was fascinated to read recently (courtesy of Richard Dawkins) that the LBBG and the Herring Gull are two extreme forms of what is essentially the same species. Here in GB they can't interbreed and are clearly separate species but on the opposite side of the northern hemisphere they interbreed and look the same. Herring gulls gradually morph (through intermediate forms) into LBBGs as you travel west around the Arctic Circle.

[@mike1350]

thebaconsnake was this in The Greatest Show On Earth?

[@ShonnMorris]

This has actually been proven not to be true and they do not represent a ring species. Hybridization usually occurs when one species outnumbers the other significantly. In the UK, that isn't the case. In North America LBBG are far fewer in number and has attempted to breed, usually paring with Herring Gulls and a hybrid known as "Appledore" Gull occurs along the east coast. LBBG has also been observed performing pair-bonding behavior with Iceland Gulls in eastern Canada and Western Gulls in California though no known hybridization of those has been known to occur. A LBBG also attempted to breed with a Herring Gull in Alaska in a colony which also contained Glaucous-winged Gulls so there is a possibility that one could pair with GWGU, a species which hybridizes with everything already and we have seen some strange looking birds in CA in winter, one looked like it could have very well been such a hybrid but we will never know for sure.

[@Tigerpuffer]

@@ShonnMorris I believe the intermediates referenced would be Heuglin's, Taimyr, and to an extent Caspian gull, as well

[@ShonnMorris]

@@Tigerpuffer That was the hypothesis. This isn't accepted anymore.

[@toms169]

01:23 is the perfect example of why we should treat apparent darkness of back with caution. They talk about this later in the video, but here you have a side-by-side comparison of LBBG and GBBG and (to my eye at least) the back colors look identical.

[@antonoat]

Fabulous video, thanks for producing and sharing it, thanks.

[@stefanjohansson7471]

I really like theese id-videos! Helping me a lot. Thanks.

[@darcyblack8222]

Informative. The only way I distinguise LBBG with GBBG is the leg colour and size but in juvenile gulls it is a bit difficult to tell them apart.

[@archiesbirding1229]

You should make one on Yellow-Footed & Lesser Black-Backed Gull

[@ShonnMorris]

Especially since both can occur at the Salton Sea in California but most people don't really see Yellow-footed Gulls. Western and Lesser black-backed would be good.

[@Tigerpuffer]

The bird at 4:26 - is that not a first cycle lesser? The bill is so slender and the bird seems lightly built overall with long primary projections.

[@nickmoran182]

Thanks, @Tigerpuffer, and you are absolutely right: the first image of an immature gull shows a Lesser Black-backed, not a Great Black-backed as labelled. The following image is actually a Herring Gull, not Lesser Black-backed, too. This has only just been drawn to my attention, but I'll see if our Social Media team (of one...) can either rectify it or mark up the error.

[@brittr.8496]

From a beginner point of view, I would like it if you cover only one bird at a time in the beginning and then do a comparison at the end. That way I get a feel for each one before jumping back and forth between them. It's hard for me to follow but excellent content!

[@BTOvideo]

Hi Brittney, thanks for your feedback; we'll pass it on!

[@brittr.8496]

Thank you!

[@spillarge]

She missed out another important species, the Herring Gull and LBB Gull have interbred and produced another species called the Yellow Legged Gull. It has a mantle which is light grey inbetween the silver of the Herring Gull and the Dark grey of the LBB Gull and has retained the yellow leg colour of the LBB Gull and is the same size as both species.

[@SPTSuperSprinter156]

I wasn't aware that the yellow-legged was a result of interbreeding, rather it was just considered a race of herring gull and eventually became recognised separately. You are right though in that it does effectively combine features of both.

[@spillarge]

@@SPTSuperSprinter156 Its my observations only which lead me to make that assumption a few decades ago. After all, cross breeding is a way to produce many variants of different species. When I was a kid in the 1970's I always wondered why the LBBs and HGs stayed as separate species when their colonies often always shared the same nesting sites. Now it would seem that fifty years on we are seeing numbers of yellow legged Herring Gulls around with darker mantles. Last year I witnessed a LBB and a fourth year juvenile HG going through a mating ritual together on the banks of the Crouch Estuary in Essex while an adult HG with pink legs stood by closely watching. The Juvenile HG was in it's last year of plumage and almost completely adult in colour bar the browner primaries and a trace of a brown tail bar. Oh and legs that were becoming pink. First time I ever witnessed such an event and it was really intriguing. Both birds were very comfortable with one another and acted as one species with the same calls, body language and actions.

[@seagullsaga6587]

Think the hybrid of LBBG’s & Herring Gulls are called Appledore 🤔

[@spillarge]

@@seagullsaga6587 Thank you for that Rebekah. I know about an island in the USA called Appledore island where they ring LBBG's, HG's and GBBG's but no mention of the yellow footed Herring Gulls. I wonder if anyone else has a name for this species.

[@seagullsaga6587]

@spillarge Ooh I’ll check this with my friend & get back to you. She owns a bird rescue specialising in Gulls so She’d definitely know. The Appledores apparently only inhabit a certain area of the USA as it seems these two species only crossbreed within a specific region of the World. It seems the American Herring Gull mate with LBB in a region (probably Appledore & the surrounding area) of the US whereas the European Herring Gull apparently cannot mate with the LBB or GBB here. We have the yellow footed gulls here though so I’ll see what my friend says as I’m now pretty curious myself. It’s not easy with Gulls at all. Some species look so similar to others don’t they? It’s not as easy as it is with other Birds in my opinion.

[@tiedupsmurf]

Brilliant video

[@chestnut4860]

3:43 But those are such yellow legs?

[@ShonnMorris]

One correction; the first immature bird was labeled a Great black-backed Gull but that was indeed a Lesser black-backed Gull. The one after it was labeled a LBBG but that one was a Herring Gull. As a gull enthusiast from California, I do enjoy these videos. Perhaps I should start a similar channels for our species in California of which Herring and LBBG would be included although the latter is rare here a few are reported each winter and we even had a summer record a few years ago. We don't have GBBG but we do have another species, the Western Gull which in some ways looks like a smaller GBBG as they are Herring Gull size but with a slate gray back like LBBG and they have pink legs. They're also bulky looking with a large bill.

[@nickmoran182]

Thanks, @ShonnMorris, and you are absolutely right: the images of immature gulls show Lesser Black-backed and then Herring. This has only just been drawn to my attention, but I'll see if our Social Media team (of one...) can either rectify it or mark up the error.

[@ShonnMorris]

@@nickmoran182 No one said gull ID was easy haha

[@lillyvanmalssen4409]

This was very useful! Thank you.

[@SecretLifeOfSwansByXavier]

Are those gulls can be fund in Boston?

[@BTOvideo]

+Xavier West Hi Xavier. There is an American race of Herring Gull that is extremely similar to ours in the video. Great Black-backed Gull is found in NE States. The Lesser Black-back is a scarce visitor to the NE States, but increasingly common. So, it is possible to spot all 3 of these species around Boston!

[@ShonnMorris]

Yes. The American race of Herring Gull (smithsonianus) is almost indistinguishable from the west European Herring Gull race (argenteus). Great black-backed Gull occurs year-round along the east coast from eastern Canada to North Carolina and may winter farther south to Florida. Lesser black-backed Gull first showed up in the 1930s as single birds every few winters. They have gradually increased and now in some areas, hundreds can be seen. They even occur out where I am in California every winter here and there.

[@margaretallen4097]

That is not a lamp post that is sea gall

[@marioragucci1009]

This is such an informative presentation about the gulls that I appreciate very much. Thank you for this great video. I wish you could make a video about these gulls which compare and contrast their behavior. Perhaps there is some presentable information concerning interaction with other gulls, as well as humans or other birds. Also, some content can be shared comparing the calls of these birds. Thank you very much.

[@BTOvideo]

Thanks for your comment. These videos are very much about enabling you to identify the species in the field, rather than a wider information about their lives etc. Behaviour-wise, both Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gulls are very closely related and their behaviour and calls are very similar indeed!

[@marioragucci1009]

And I thank you because your videos are easy to understand. I have learned how to note the wing and color differences. I have learned how to describe differences in gull species with the great language used in this video. Somewhere I have read gulls can also interbreed, like Herring, GBB and Glaucous. Describing a photographed hybridized gull would be a challenge. I don't know for sure if gulls really do cross breed, or if it is rare, or even how to describe a hybridized gull. Thank you again for the inspiration to learn more :)

[@tiedupsmurf]

Why do they have the red spot on the bills or beak

[@pixellord1]

Well, that's how it is, all big gulls have it, small ones don't

[@LengKingg]

Medium sized gulls like common gull dont have it either

[@jeanball4036]

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between Great black back and lesser black back.

[@rileyhiggins9734]

, draw a Batgirl arcega be not me right one writing

[@jeffbrunswick5511]

You did a great job of making that as confusing as possible. Would it not of been better to show the birds along side one another and then point to the differences?

[@jakereich]

I understand your point, but actually a side-by-side comparison can seem helpful, but because you don't often get side-by-side in the field, it is arguably more helpful to try and get a feel for each species individually.

[@RevengeOfTheTuna]

2:32 Time to eat your fries

[@rileyhiggins9734]

Abaco of seagull.,,,

[@rileyhiggins9734]

Dan Siegel

[@stephthestar90]

They still look like they want your fish and chips!