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Adult Thayer's gulls (above) look like small herring gulls with more petite bills and dark eyes, different from the staring yellow eyes of typical herring gulls. Juveniles are highly variable and difficult to identify. Most of the birds on this page are of pale youngsters that were initially assumed to be Iceland gulls, but their bills were too big for that species. There is some controversy over whether Thayer's and Iceland gulls are conspecifics or separate species. Many young gulls are hard to identify (for me, at least -- to be honest I'm not 100% sure of the ID on a couple of these). These were photographed at a dairy pond and an egg ranch near the small town of Lakeview, California, and at the Salton Sea. |
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