Do Herring Gulls revert to a darker, or immature plumage in the autumn/winter?

Question

There is a Herring Gull staying around my house , which I think is the same one for the past three years, but it has darker /immature plumage around the neck during the spring and winter.

Answer 1

Actually Herring Gulls have several different plumage phases throughout thier life.... I would surmise that your regular visitor looks different at times because he is going back and forth between breeding plumage and non breeding plumage.

Excerpts.....

Breeding (Alternate) Plumage: Head, neck, and underparts pure white. Back and wings light gray. Legs dull pink. Eyes golden. Yellow or orange ring of skin around eyes. Bill yellow with red spot. Underside of wingtip black to silver.

Nonbreeding (Basic) Plumage: Head and sides of breast variably streaked with dusky, sometimes forming a dirty hood.

Immature
Juvenal plumage: Dark brown head and body, face and nape paler. Blackish around eye. Back and wings gray-brown with light edgings to feathers. Tail with large black band, whitish and barred at base. Flight feathers on wing blackish. Inner primaries pale with dark tips, forming pale window in spread wings. Bill black with pale base. Legs dark gray with pink overtones. Eyes dark brown.

First Winter (Basic I): Like juvenal, but head, throat, and breast whiter and back feathers with more complex pattern of bars. Bill black with base becoming paler. Eyes dark brown.

First Summer (Alternate I): Head, neck, and especially the throat whiter, but still streaked. Back showing a few light gray feathers. Wing feathers worn and paler. Bill black with pale base. Eyes dark brown.

Second Winter (Basic II): Head whiter, but neck heavily streaked. Back mottled brown and light gray. Underparts and rump mostly white, with variable amount of dark streaking. Wing tips black. Inner wings gray with variable amount of brown barring. Underwing whiter. Tail white at base with variable broad blackish subterminal band. Bill pale flesh at base, then black, with small white tip. Eyes pale straw or brown. Legs pale pinkish.

Second Summer (Alternate II): Head and neck largely white. Back may be entirely light gray with a few brown feathers. Underparts mostly white, with some streaking in throat. Bill yellowish at base, then black with white tip. Eyes pale straw or brown.

Third Winter (Basic III): Extensive dusky streaking on otherwise white head and neck, and especially around eye. Back light gray. Underparts white. Tail largely white with variable dark markings. Outer wing feathers (primaries) black with white tips, with white subterminal spots on some. Inner wing feathers with variable amount of brown markings. Underwing white with gray trailing edge and black tips to outer primaries. Bill yellowish with blackish bar or spots behind nostrils. Eyes yellow or buff.

Third Summer (Alternate III): Head and neck pure white or with only little streaking. Back all gray. Underparts white. Tail white with some dark smudging. Bill yellow with some red on lower mandible. Eyes brighter yellow. Legs brighter pink.

The website where I got this information also has several pictures of the different plumages if you want to look... http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Herring_Gull_dtl.html

Answer 2

I live on Cape Cod, MA...and I gotta say i've never noticed it (we've got plenty of gulls...and the herring run is right down the street from me... I pretty sure they're only darker gray when they're "pre-adolescent"...not fully grown).

Answer 3

i'm hoping you're going back To Feed Them on a daily basis Mate !...or you would be reported to the R.S.P.B. !!.... NB this may be the 2nd Time.. do not forget What U Did to a great number of..... Little Yellow Chickens!... physique Fluids do not exchange Names! info is info !!