When I was in Choshi fishing port, Japan, at the start of the year I was fortunate to come across a Black-legged Kittiwake that was both very approachable AND uninjured - a great combination for a photographer to take advantage of! There were several kittiwakes in the port - all of course of the eastern Asian/western North American race pollicaris - showing a wide range of primary moult, and perhaps the most interesting photo here is the last one. It apparently shows a kittiwake with an abnormal amount of black in the wingtip: if we look more closely though what we can see is that the bird hasn’t fully grown all of its primary feathers. It’s the shorter, still growing feather that is creating the effect because its black tip is not yet reaching the end of the wing and therefore is not yet aligned with the other primary tips. Once it has grown fully the primaries will be aligned properly and the whole wing tip will have the “dipped in ink” normal pattern again.

Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla pollicaris
Choshi, Chiba, Japan. January 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores