See below for photos HISTORY The bird was first discovered alive by local birder-extraordinaire Ron Donovan, on Long Island, in Boston Harbor, November 2. He found it was still there a week later, and he and his brother Steven succeeded in capturing it when they discovered it was too weak to fly. They brought it to a rehab facility, where we hoped it would recover, and complete its wing molt. Unfortunately, it expired November 17. DESCRIPTION Despite how the scanned images may appear online, the shade of gray on the mantle of this bird is slightly paler than L. f. graellsii. Some differences in color tones in the photos are due to the fact that some were shot in shade, while others were shot in sun. The P10s (outermost) on each wing are old and very bleached and abraded. Each P9 was just emerging when the bird died. They are invisible unless P10 and P8 are parted by hand. The outermost 4-5 secondaries are fresh, but the rest of the secondaries had yet to be replaced. The rest of the wing molt appears to be complete. In life, the eyes were pale yellowish with scattered blackish flecks, and the orbital ring was dull pale yellow. The legs were dull pink. In the field, the bird appeared to be slightly larger than a Herring Gull. I defer to the museum staff for specific measurements (e.g., wings, tarsi, bill, etc). COMMENTS Initially we entertained ideas of Slaty-backed because of the white primary crescents (albeit narrow) on the inner portion the primary pattern ("tongue-tips"). But the rest of the primary pattern is not consistent with SB. The best guess now is hybrid Great Black-backed X Herring, even though the primary pattern appears to be outside the range of variation for either of these two possible parental species. I am contacting researchers who might be willing and able to perform DNA analyses on this specimen. If any illuminating results emerge from these, I will post them. Meanwhile, any and all comments are welcome. Thanks. Simon Perkins (sperkins@massaudubon.org) Massachusetts Audubon Society

PHOTOS Click for Larger Images