Short-billed Gull Larus brachyrhynchus 美洲海鷗
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
Smaller than Common Gull with small bill, rounded and dove-like head, slim body with flat back and unusual upturned wing-tips at rest. Separation from Common Gull is not straightforward, and for more detail readers are referred to Adriaens and Gibbins (2016), from which the following is taken. First-winters usually have wholly dark tail (including outer web of outer tail feather), heavily-barred uppertail coverts, diffuse dark centres to median and lesser coverts with sandy-brown fringes, notably thin pale tips to the tertials, darker body, undertail coverts (dark dominating pale) and underwings (latter with unbarred axillaries) and buffy ground colour to head. For identification of other age classes see Adriaens and Gibbins (2016).
VOCALISATIONS
Calls similar to Common Gull.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
The sole record was seen in the gull roost off Mai Po boardwalk.
OCCURRENCE
A first-winter bird during 25-28 February 1994.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
No observations.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds in Alaska and northwest Canada, winters to the south coastally as far as California (Moskoff and Bevier 2021). Accidental in Japan (Brazil 2018).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern (Larus canus brachyrhynchus). Population trend unknown.
Brazil, M. (2018). Birds of Japan. Helm, London.
Moskoff, W. and L. R. Bevier (2021). Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.mewgul2.01.1
