nominate Lesser Black-backed Gull (L. f. fuscus)

(last update: 26-2-2011)

Larus fuscus fuscus 2cy, June 14 2014, Tara dump - Tampere, Finland. Images: Hannu Koskinen.

2cy in June from the "slow moulting" group. This group contains birds photographed in Finland, of which at least several birds recall nominate fuscus in many respects, except for (some) juvenile primaries. In this way they are different from 'typical 2CY fuscus birds', which return in Europe with replaced, 2nd gen primaries in spring.
However, some of the birds in this slow moulting group are different from nominate fuscus, and very similar to (and actually may be) birds of the western taxa graellsii / intermedius. These birds are characterised by moult commencement in spring (April-June) and return with juvenile primaries, secondaries and rectrices. There may even be a large portion of juvenile wing-coverts and tertials. When the new coverts are pale slate grey in such birds, or even show bold patterns and these birds are streaked on the head, this all adds to the general appearance of western graellsii.
We may also place some slow moulting birds in this group which in fact are 2CY heuglini. The exact variation in returning 2CY heuglini in June in N Europe is not fully understood.

Bird below: very similar to western graellsii. Few coverts were replaced in winter (see e.g. GC1-3 and TT1-3), but many coverts still old juvenile. Head streaked. Complete moult started in recently, now P1-P2 new, P3 growing, P6-P10 old juvenile. Secondaries and tail old juvenile.