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| March. Vancouver Island. |
Age: A standard adult, four-cycle, gull.
Identification: Our September Quiz bird has light gray upperparts with rather extensive black on the wingtip. Note, however, the black on the wingtip is less-than true black, with a suspicious gray quality. The underside to the far wing reinforces this coloration. The smudged head marks, apparent dark eye, and fairly straight bill with orange-red gonys spot all support Thayer's Gull, which often shows a California-gull-like gape line. The pigment on the wingtip approaches the darkest extreme in this taxon, with no p9 mirror and the visible inner web being grayish black. This individual shows very fresh tips to all of its flight feathers for mid-March. Finally, it's worth noting that the white tips to the inner primaries can be relatively broad on some Iceland Gulls, even broader than what's seen here.