Graeme O'Rourke
Pacific Gull # 3
"Here's looking at you, kid" - Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 movie, Casablanca
This photo was taken from the Port Welshpool Long Jetty which extends 800 metre out into the waters of Corner Inlet in the state of Victoria, Australia. This Pacific Gull was ever ready to swoop down and land on the water to grab the occasional bait that happened to fall off a fishing line cast from the jetty.
The Pacific Gull is Australia’s largest gull and despite its name it is rarely seen on Australia’s Pacific coastline as it lives mainly on the beaches bordering the Southern and Indian oceans.
The Pacific Gull is a very large black-backed gull with a wing span of up to 157 cm or 62 inches and has a massive yellow bill, broadly tipped with scarlet on both the upper and lower mandible. The upper wings and wingtips are wholly black with a narrow white inner trailing edge, the tail is white with a broad black band near the end. The legs are yellow to orange-yellow.
The wings of the juvenile Pacific Gulls are mottled dark brown, their face is pale with a black-tipped yellow bill, and a whitish mottled body.
This gull's mottled dark brown coloring and the black and pink tip on its bill indicates that this gull is younger than 4-years old at which age the tip of its bill will be completely scarlet, its upper wings will be black with a narrow white inner trailing edge, and its body feathers white.
Young birds attain their adult plumage only gradually and by its fourth year, a young Pacific gull has usually become difficult to tell apart from an adult bird.
Pacific Gull # 3
"Here's looking at you, kid" - Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 movie, Casablanca
This photo was taken from the Port Welshpool Long Jetty which extends 800 metre out into the waters of Corner Inlet in the state of Victoria, Australia. This Pacific Gull was ever ready to swoop down and land on the water to grab the occasional bait that happened to fall off a fishing line cast from the jetty.
The Pacific Gull is Australia’s largest gull and despite its name it is rarely seen on Australia’s Pacific coastline as it lives mainly on the beaches bordering the Southern and Indian oceans.
The Pacific Gull is a very large black-backed gull with a wing span of up to 157 cm or 62 inches and has a massive yellow bill, broadly tipped with scarlet on both the upper and lower mandible. The upper wings and wingtips are wholly black with a narrow white inner trailing edge, the tail is white with a broad black band near the end. The legs are yellow to orange-yellow.
The wings of the juvenile Pacific Gulls are mottled dark brown, their face is pale with a black-tipped yellow bill, and a whitish mottled body.
This gull's mottled dark brown coloring and the black and pink tip on its bill indicates that this gull is younger than 4-years old at which age the tip of its bill will be completely scarlet, its upper wings will be black with a narrow white inner trailing edge, and its body feathers white.
Young birds attain their adult plumage only gradually and by its fourth year, a young Pacific gull has usually become difficult to tell apart from an adult bird.