Lesser Black-backed Gull: fuscus

Below there will be a lot of examples of birds from Langvannet (and a couple from Oslo) mostly fuscus-like, but also some intermedius.

Langvannet, 08. August
This bird hasn't changed any of it's primaries (that we can see),
so we have nothing to compare the upperwing color with.
Still it may turn out a bit bright compared with a real fuscus.

Langvannet, 08. August
(The bird from above in foreground)
Looks almost exactly the same as above bird on upperwing, but...
...Look at primaries: This one have changed them all (although
they looks quite brown close to the body),
at the same time there are a lot of brown feathers
in upperwing. Do they get as worned as this, or is this
bird a 5cy-ich dark intermedius/bright fuscus?

Langvannet, 12. August
What are the new feathers in this wing? Think I see both
dark fuscus feathers, and light intermedius feathers...
Also the bird has changed 8 primaries (2 to go), something
that fit very well into the two colorringed birds at Langvannet.

Langvannet, 12. August
Dark and long-winged bird. Changed all the primaries I can
see. Tertials don't look as good for fuscus maybe, but it
could be the light. Absolutely a good candidate. The new
feathers in wing looks like they are darker then the rest.

Langvannet, 12. August
intermedius-bird. New feathers in wing clearly brighter then
the rest of it, and clearly brighter than the wingtip.

Langvannet, 12. August
A good-looking bird which was seen briefly. Adult looking.
Really dark upperwing, but again, is it the light?

Langvannet, 30. July
At long range this doesn't look that good, but seen up close
you see 4 old primaries remaining, and dark on bright in wing.
Looks really athletic, both on photo and live. Same bird that
was used to illustrate lights importance in last post.

Langvannet, 12. August
Another fine intermedius. Wingtip may look like
the bird on image number 2 when wing is closed...

Langvannet, 12. August
Looks good at the beginning, but scary light and what
appear to be a large window on P10 makes me wonder.

This bird is quite easy to recognize, so I have many pictures
in different settings. Can still not say anything about ssp
safely.

Large dark-eyed LBBG. Ssp. intermedius

Kuba, Akerselva
Dark-looking and long-winged. When I lighten it I think
I see new brighter feathers, together large white spot on P10.
Makes this bird unidentified.

Kuba, Akerselva
The new feathers looks dark on this bird. Still looks a little
short-winged and heavily built. 

Ankerbrua, Akerselva
Looks really good for fuscus. Dark upperwing and small
white window on P10. Small head.

Langvannet
Just to show upperwing on a 3cy intermedius.

Langvannet
Short legs, small rounded head, and appears long-winged.
Still upperwing color makes it an intermedius. Interesting
bird anyway.

So many good-looking bird at Langvannet (and some in Oslo), and statistics says that it has to be more than the two colorringed birds at Langvannet of ssp fuscus. Still this is a so difficult subspecie to identify! Be careful, and only identify extremely typical birds (preferably with colorring).

Some thoughts at the end of the fuscus bit. Since these bird are hard (impossible) to identify safely, nobody actually tries. Therefore we know very little about their migration routes. We actually don't know where they winter. There are very few recoveries in winter areas of dark winged bird (fuscus). Therefore they probably have a different wintering area than intermedius, which have a lot of winter recoveries.

Will post photos of graelsii-type birds later...