The first confirmed Grey Gull for the United States has been found in western Florida.
The hen was discovered at Santa Rosa Beach in Walton County on 3 September by native birder Adam Pickos, who posted the sighting on eBird in search of suggestions on its identification. Adam’s suspicions proved right and the gull was nonetheless current later that day and in these following, typically giving excellent views among the many native Laughing Gulls.
It later transpired that presumably the identical hen had been photographed at close by Camp Helen State Park in June, whereas discussions with non-birding locals urged the gull had been visiting Santa Rosa Beach for a number of weeks.
North America’s first confirmed Grey Gull (left) with two juvenile Laughing Gulls (Amar Ayyash).
Grey Gull is native to the Pacific coast of South America, the place it may be quite common alongside the coasts of Peru and Chile. However, it’s hardly ever seen additional north than Ecuador. Until the Seventies its breeding grounds remained a thriller, but it surely has since been discovered to breed inland within the deserts of northern Chile.
Vagrant Grey Gulls have been recorded in Brazil, Argentina and twice in Mexico. There is a earlier declare from Louisiana, USA, in December 1987, however the Louisiana Bird Records Committee felt {that a} melanistic Laughing Gull couldn’t be dominated out from the single image taken and as such the document was not accepted.
