Another “common” vagrant - Black-tailed Gull
By Charlie • September 27, 2007 • 4 commentsI wrote a post yesterday about how a common bird in one area is sometimes seen as being a vagrant in another: specifically how some relatively common North American birds (eg American Robin, Black and White Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco) cause twitchers on my side of “the pond” to - well, start ‘twitching’. Vagrancy isn’t of course uni-directional - some common-ish mainly European birds like Northern Wheatear and Lapwing are very sought-after in North America, and as you’d expect some very common Asian birds turn up as vagrants in both Europe and North America (Pallas’s Warbler or Black-faced Bunting anyone?). To illustrate the point here’s a photo-gallery of a gull that you’d find impossible to miss if you were birding along the coast in winter in eg Japan or Korea, but that would cause absolute birding mayhem if it ever turned up in the UK - and still has pretty much the same effect when it’s found outside western vagrant hot-spots in eg Alaska or California…the Black-tailed Gull.
Adult Black-tailed Gulls Larus crassirostris
Choshi Port, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. 30 January 2006
The Black-tailed Gull Larus crassirostris is endemic to North-East Asia, breeding on sandy and rocky shores, islands and cliffs in the Sea of Japan/East Sea and wintering south as far as Hong Kong where it is a scarce visitor. It has not yet been recorded in Europe, but is an increasingly identified vagrant to North America, where it has appeared as far inland as the Great Lakes. It is one of the few gull taxa to have a black tail - with a broad white terminal band - in adult plumage, and with its dark mantle, amber-yellow legs, and long, multi-coloured bill it is pretty much unmistakeable.
The species is the commonest “large” gull in Japan and Korea in the winter, and dominates the harbours and ports where they are abundant scavengers. At Choshi it is by far the most numerous gull, and flocks of several hundred commonly swarm around incoming fishing boats (along with a few Vega and Slaty-backed Gulls).
To keep download time shorter I have posted photographs of immature Black-tailed Gulls separately, and these are at Non-adults.
All photographs on this page copyright Charlie Moores.
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These are some fine looking gulls! I’m a sucker for the multicolored bill.
Charlie: In responding to your comment from yesterday, if you find yourself in the Midwestern United States (Chicago or otherwise), I’ll show you more American Robins, Dark-Eyed Juncos, and White-Throated Sparrows than you can shake a stick at.
And, in keeping with the current post about gulls, maybe I can show you some Ring-Billed Gulls if you ever make it this way? I think they are more common than House Sparrows around here (I live on the Mississippi River)! It looks like the Ring-Bill shows up in Europe, but I can’t discern how often. Maybe you’ve seen them.
Amazing shots of the Black-Tailed Gull.
If only we could all just travel all over and see these guys where they are, wouldn’t that be fun! So many places to go, so little time (and money) - great photos, by the way.
Exceptional photos, Charlie. So crisp and clear you can certainly see the multi-colored bill very well. I wonder if this bird would be seen on the California coast. Thanks for sharing.