Gulls. Professor John C. Coulson

6. The relationship between adult weight and the extent to which the male has a longer wing than females. The percentage difference in wing length between the sexes increases in heavier species, but is much less than the difference of body weight shown in Fig. 5.

      The reason why there is a greater size difference between the sexes in large gull species is not known, and currently it is possible only to speculate. Perhaps there is a greater need in the large species to reduce competition for food between the sexes, or perhaps the dimorphism is related to the greater need for males of large species to defend nesting territories. The reader might speculate further, bearing in mind that in the skuas, females are invariably larger than males, while male terns are only 1–3 per cent heavier than females.

      Despite the average size differences, there is an overlap in the range of sizes of male and female gulls. Niko Tinbergen claimed that, despite the overlap in size between the sexes of Herring Gulls, invariably the male is larger in every pair. Because of the average difference in size between the sexes, by chance the male will be larger than the female in many pairs, and more so in the larger gull species, but I have not found evidence that the male is invariably larger than the female. Size, and particularly the size of the bill, may play a part in individual birds recognising the sex of other gulls, but it is more likely that behaviour – particularly during courtship – plays the major role in sex recognition in gulls, especially in smaller species.

      Sexing gulls

      As male and female gulls have identical plumage features, distinguishing them in the field can be very difficult. The most reliable way to determine the sex of an individual bird – without killing it and then dissecting it to examine the gonads – is by carrying out a DNA analysis on samples obtained from feathers or blood. While this method is highly efficient, it is time consuming and it is expensive when large numbers of birds are being studied. In the field, biometric measurements taken while a bird is temporarily captured for ringing can also be used for sexing the individual. I found that the best measure was the head and bill length (from the back of the head to the bill tip), which also had the advantage of showing the highest degree of consistency when measured by different people. Further, the proportionate difference in head and bill length between the sexes is almost twice that for wing length (for example, 9.6 per cent compared to 5 per cent in the Great Black-backed Gull). The only disadvantage of this measure is that in some museum specimens part of the back of the skull was removed during preparation, which prevents it being used in these cases. As shown in Table 2, the head and bill measurement is satisfactory in sexing 92–98 per cent of individuals of several gull species. Including two other body measurements (wing length and bill depth) in a discriminant analysis increased the accuracy of sexing only by less than 2 per cent points.

TABLE 2. The head and bill lengths of adults of six species of gulls in Britain, the measure separating the sexes and the proportions sexed correctly by this single measurement. The data are based on samples of at least 80 individuals of each sex breeding in Britain, except for Common Gulls (Larus canus), which were captured in winter and so were from unknown breeding areas. Based on Coulson et al. (1983a) and additional data.

      When a group of breeding gulls is being studied, the behaviour of marked individuals can be used as a reliable method of sexing. Copulation is totally reliable in this respect, as is courtship feeding of the female by the male and intensive food begging by the female. More details on the methodology used to sex gulls are given in Chapter 12.

      Adult plumages

      There is considerable variation in the shade of grey on the wing and mantle in adult gulls of the same species, which is evident in birds nesting in the same colony. This is illustrated in Fig. 7, which shows the extent of such variation in Herring Gulls breeding on the Isle of May in Scotland (subspecies Larus argentatus argenteus) and in northern Norway (subspecies L. a. argentatus). Because of the variation, there is overlap in wing shades between the two subspecies of Herring Gulls and most, but not all, individuals can be identified on this basis alone (see also box). Even using more measurements of body size does not completely separate all argenteus males from argentatus females.

      In Lesser Black-backed Gulls breeding in the Netherlands (Fig. 7), there is also considerable variation in wing shade, with the palest approaching the darkest shade of Herring Gulls breeding in northern Norway. The darkest shade reported in Lesser Black-backs in the Netherlands is said to fall within the shade range of the subspecies Larus fuscus fuscus, which breeds in eastern Scandinavia and typically has a black mantle and wings very similar to those of the Great Black-backed Gull. The majority of Lesser Black-backed Gulls breeding in the Netherlands have a range of shades found in both the subspecies L. f. intermedius (breeding in north-west Europe) and L. f. graellsii (breeding in Britain).

      Identification of the Lesser Black-backed Gull subspecies intermedius and graellsii in the field is further complicated by whether the individual is seen in bright sunlight or under dull conditions, and also by the direction of the light, all of which affect the apparent shade of grey of the same individual recorded in photographs or observed in the field. Reliable records of shade need to be measured with the bird in the hand, using standard lighting and comparing it against a reliable shade chart, but even this would not identify the subspecies of all individuals.

      FIG 7. The shade of the wings of adult (a) Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) breeding in Britain (n = 1,591) and (b) northern Norway (n = 140), and (c) Lesser Black-backed Gulls (L. fuscus) breeding in the Netherlands (n = 899). The shades increase in darkness from left to right and correspond approximately to shades of grey, which range from 1 (white) to 20 (black). The data for Lesser Black-backed Gulls are taken from Muusse et al. (2011).

      Differences in wing pigmentation

      A major source of plumage variation within gull species is the pattern of black or brown pigmentation on the wings of immature individuals. These show progressive changes at each annual moult, until adult plumage is eventually achieved. In addition, this patterning varies appreciably between individuals of the same age, even within a single colony. For example, fully adult Herring Gulls in the same colony showed a range in the number of primaries that are tipped with black pigment (Table 3), and they also showed variation in the extent of white on the tip of the longest (10th) primary. Part of this variation is linked to the age of the birds (Table 4), with change continuing for several years after individuals reach breeding age, but the patterning is not related to gender.

TABLE 3. The percentage of fully adult Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) examined in breeding colonies with different numbers of black-tipped outer primaries. Dutch data from Muusse et al. (2011), Norwegian data mainly from Barth (1975).

TABLE 4. The wing-tip pattern in Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) of known age breeding in colonies in Britain. The extent of white on the tip of the 10th primary tends to increase with age.

      Part of the variation is also geographical, as seen in adult Herring Gulls breeding on the east and west sides of England and Scotland (Table 5). This difference between east and west in the black-and-white patterning on the primaries is maintained in the winter, presumably because the north–south dispersive movements of British Herring Gulls mainly follow either the eastern or the western coastlines,