Memorandum to:  The Director of Birds Australia

 

From:     Birds Australia Rarities Committee (BARC)

 

Date:      10th March 2006

 

Voting Members: Rohan Clarke   Tony Palliser

    Mike Carter   Andrew Silcocks

    John Hatch    Danny Rogers

    Niven McCrie Jamie Matthew

   

cc.     

 

Submission No 456: Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus at Darwin, 23 January to 6 February 2005 (Unpublished). Submitted by: M. Carter & M. Roderick.

 

An adult winter-plumaged Black-headed Gull was found associating with Silver Gull L. novaehollandiae, various terns and waders about 1 km west of the mouth of the Buffalo Creek at Darwin on the evening of 23 January 2005.

 

The bird was described as slightly smaller than the Silver Gulls with a smaller head and slender neck held very erect when running around. The legs appeared long and when perched, the wings extended well beyond the tail. The whole underparts and neck were white as was most of the head except for a dark spot on the ear-coverts at eye level and a narrow dusky band forward of this across the crown. The dark band on the crown indicated a slight progression to breeding plumage as did the dark legs and bill.

 

Photographs taken by M. Roderick a week later, three of which were included in the submission, show a further advancement of moult to breeding plumage.

 

Members had no difficulty accepting this record agreeing entirely with the observer’s findings.  The 4th confirmed record for Australia.

 

 

Verdict: Accepted

 

 

References:

 

·       Barrett, G., Silcocks, A., Barry, S., Cunningham, R. & Poulter, R. (2003), The New Atlas of Australian Birds, Royal Australian Ornithologists Union, Melbourne. 

·       Cramp, S. (1983), The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Vol. 3, Waders to Gulls, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

·       Grant, P.J. (1982), Gulls, a guide to identification Poyser, Calton, Staffordshire. 

·       Higgins, P.J. & Davies, S.J.J.F., (1996), Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds, Vol. 3, Snipe to Pigeons, Oxford, Melbourne.

·       McCrie, N. & McCrie, T., (1999), ‘Sight Records of a Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus in the Northern Territory’ Australian Bird Watcher, 18:87-92. 

·       McCrie, N. & Watson, J. (2003), Finding Birds in Darwin, Kakadu and the Top End, NT Birding, Casuarina.

·       Palliser, T. (2004), ‘Rare Birds in 2003’, Wingspan, 14:(3), 38-39.

·       BARC Case Numbers 131, 237 and 365.  

 

 

 

Tony Palliser

Chairman, Birds Australia Rarities Committee