American herring gull?

This bird has been at Chew for several weeks, and a full analysis of it can be found here. It's big, has a deep voice, and is much more deep-breasted, larger billed, and aggressive than birds of the argenteus subspecies of European Herring gull that we are most familiar with in western Europe. One feature that stood out to me was the presence of huge black claws on the feet - these were nothing like as obvious in the argenteus birds I watched on College Green in Bristol shortly afterwards. Most importantly, its wing pattern is typical of many American herring gulls Larus smithsonianus. Some photos of the wing pattern at included on later pages. Although it is debatable whether adult smithsonianus in summer plumage can be reliably diagnosed, this bird is definitely unusual. If anyone gets a feather from it, let me know, and I'll try and get some DNA sequenced from it, to at least determine where its mother came from!

hAmerican herring gull?

American herring gull?

American herring gull?

American herring gull?

More putative American herring gulls