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| LBBG (first summer). Michigan City, IN. 01 Sept 2014. |
It's nearly done with its primary molt here in early September:
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| P1-P8 new 2nd basic, P9 dropped, P10 retained 1st basic (=juvenile). |
Around 14 months old now and still showing an almost entirely black bill. It's not uncommon for a Lesser this old to show this bill pattern, but note the almost always reliable pale nail:
An interesting experience while observing this bird, a young boy, perhaps, 10 or 11 years old walked up to us and asked if he can feed the gulls a piece of bread. Well, he did, after picking up a 2nd cycle Ring-billed and hand feeding it...this was a bizarre experience, but it was obvious this boy was used to handling birds in the hand.