Slender- billed Gull - Chroicocephalus genei
Slender-billed Gull - 1st winter. Salinas de Tavira. Note very pale iris, long orange-red bill and diffuse ear-spot never as pronounced as in Black-headed Gull.
This is another gull that until quite recently was regarded as a rarity in Portugal. Since around the turn of the century, however, it has become a regular non-breeding visitor to the Eastern Algarve, although it remains distinctly unusual anywhere west of Faro and is a rarity in the rest of Portugal. Superficially resembling Black-headed Gull with which it often joins while feeding when swimming on flooded salt pans, with a little experience it can easily be picked out by its long-neck and distinctly flattened forehead and long bill. It does not possess a dark hood in summer plumage when adults generally acquire an attractive pink flush, of varying intensity, to the underparts and inner underwing.
Adult summer. Salinas de Tavira. The red bill becomes darker in breeding plumage, some appearing black as in the individual.
Adult in flight illustrating similar wing-pattern to Black-headed Gull. Salinas de Tavira.
Pictures by Ray Tipper - More about Ray...
More about Ray Tipper
Ray Tipper began his birding on the North Kent Marshes at the age if eleven. He left his native Britain in 1973 spending most of the next 22 years in Hong Kong. As a trustee of WWF he was intimately involved with its renowned Mai Po Nature Reserve. It was in Hong Kong that Ray turned to bird photography, which quickly became his major interest. He gained associateship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1990, and his photographs appear in journals and books throughout the world. Ray guides specialist birdwatching and bird photography tours and since 1997 has led more than 100 tours in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Madagascar. He now lives in the Algarve, where his intimate knowledge of its birds has been recognised by his appointment as Chairman of the Portuguese Rarities Committee.
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