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Basic
plumaged adult at North Point, Barbados, 6 December 2001. Photos © by
Martin Frost. First record for Barbados and the West Indies. This bird
was present 6-10 December. Note the dark mantle, heavy yellow bill,
and pale legs. The bill (A-B) is too heavy for any race of the Lesser
Black-backed Gull (L. fuscus), and the outermost primaries (C-D) lack the extensive white mirrors of the Great Black-backed Gull (L. marinus).
The dark iris and apparent absence of a red orbital ring (A-B), even
when viewed from as close as 10 m, is suggestive of the African race vetula,
whose orbital ring during the nonbreeding season is pale yellow and
hardly noticeable. In recent decades the African race has expanded its
range northward along the west coast of Africa and has even nested
north of the equator since 1980. This bird was found only a few months
after two appeared in Trinidad (click here).
Further details are published in: Hayes, F. E., G. L. White, M. D.
Frost, B. Sanasie, H. Kilpatrick, and E. B. Massiah. 2002. First
records of Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus for Trinidad and Barbados. Cotinga 18:85-88.
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