29 May 2018

1st Cycle Laughing x Ring-billed Gull - Ohio

Here's a neat 1st cycle photographed by Janice Farral in early May 2018:


Lucas County, Ohio. 

The aspiring hood, leg color and bill pattern make this a great candidate for Laughing x Ring-billed Gull, tending toward the latter. Interestingly, not too far to the east in Lorain, Ohio, observers recorded an adult Laughing Gull being courted by an adult Ring-billed Gull last Spring. A putative hybrid was also seen in Lorain last year.