The great black-backed gull is the largest member of the gull family and is found on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic.
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Great black-backed gulls. |
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With double-crested cormorants in Cape Breton. |
It is grayish/black on its wings and black with white "mirrors" on its wingtips. It has pinkish legs and a yellow or yellow/pink bill with red or orange on the tip of the lower bill.
Juvenile birds less than a year old have scaly, checkered black/brown upper parts with the head and underparts streaked with gray/brown and a neat wing pattern. The tail is white with zig-zag bars with spots at the base and a broken blackish band at the tip. The bill is brownish/black with a white tip and the legs are a dark bluish/gray with some pink tones.
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A second winter bird to left and an adult to right. |
As they age the coloration gradually fades to more contrasting plumage and the bill darkens to black before growing paler. It takes four years to reach maturity.
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Two adults, an American herring gull between them (preening) and a juvenile American herring gull to the front left. |
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Two adults (far left and far right) and the others are juvenile American herring gulls. |
We saw these birds in Passamaquoddy Bay outside of Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, and on the bird islands of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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