Birding Alaska

Kamchatka (Mew) Gull Larus canus kamtschatschensis, western Bering Sea, 29 July 2009.

The Kamchatka (Mew) Gull Larus canus kamtschatschensis is a rare visitor to western Alaska.  It is the largest and most distinctive of the L. canus subspecies.  As an adult it can be separated from Mew Gull L. c. brachyrhynchos by its larger size, longer wings and bill, paler eye, darker mantle and more extensive black on the wing-tips–P8 lacks the white tongue tip that is present on a Mew Gull.  This Kamchatka Gull was photographed in the western Bering Sea, a few miles within Alaskan waters.