This gull showing features of Vega Gull
Larus [argentatus] vegae was photographed at
Corpus Christi Landfill, Texas on April 10, 2004 by Willie Sekula.
I feel that this is a very good Vega candidate. The closest alternative
might be a smithsonianusXthayeri hybrid, but a couple
of things point away from this theory:-
1) Willie described the bird as being clearly darker-mantled than
nearby HERGs and RBGUs (with richer rose-pink legs), and rather
bulky - the size of an average smith HERG; certainly there
is nothing in the structure to suggest thayeri ancestry.
2) The form of smith. from the NE of its wide range (i.e.
those that nest just below thayeri on Baffin Island) has
the most white, least black in the primaries - it seems quite
unlikely that such HERGs combined with the even-less-pigmented
thayeri could produce a bird with this much black in the
primaries; note especially the virtually complete black subterminal
band on P5, the extensive grayish-black on the inner webs
of P10 and P9, and the small mirror on P9 not extending
to the outer web - these are typical for vegae and seem
very unlikely in a NE smith.X thayeri combination.
I would imagine that a NW smith X vegae hybrid would
have less-crimson orbital rings, paler eyes, and more black (plus
less subterminal white bands) in the primaries (as the NW smiths
seem to have to most black/least white in the Ps.)
I have two elements of uncertainty in regarding this bird a Vega
Gull:-
A) the primary tips are very worn, yet typically vegae
is a late-molter, with all the images I can find from their normal
range in March/April showing almost no wear. Keep in mind that
the normal winter range of this species is very humid without
sandy beaches; a vagrant wintering on the Gulf Goast has only
dry, windy, sandy beaches to exist on, which may account for the
atypical wear on the whole bird (including the loss of most winter
head streaking)?
B) The dark elements of the inner webs to the outer primares seem
rather pale - slate-grayish rather than black; is this okay for
vegae?:
