Friday, August 5, 2011

Gray-hooded Gull


This is (ostensibly) the second U.S.A. record of Gray-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus) and only the third for North America. Other records were Florida in 1998, Barbados in 2009. Contrary to it's extreme rarity status it's wandering around on the heavily used beach at Coney Island, Brooklyn, NYC. Since this is not a prime birding spot it was found by chance and it took a little while for the word to get out. Since then it's fair to assume that hundreds of people have seen it and probably hundreds more are hoping to. It goes by the name Grey-headed Gull outside the AOU area.

These pictures are from August 2nd.

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