{"id":8739,"date":"2013-06-29T05:58:30","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T11:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8739"},"modified":"2024-09-04T13:48:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T18:48:27","slug":"laughing-gulls-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/29\/laughing-gulls-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughing Gulls in breeding and nonbreeding plumage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both of these Laughing Gulls in breeding and nonbreeding plumage images were taken at Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach<\/span><\/a> in Florida.<\/p>\n

\"NonbreedingLaughing Gull in nonbreeding plumage – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 230mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The image above shows a Laughing gull in nonbreeding plumage that was taken in September of 2008. It was a crazy day because there was a hurricane way out in the Gulf of Mexico so the wind was blowing hard and pushing baitfish close to shore and the bird activity was great.<\/p>\n

Note the nearly white head, the black bill and how the white eye arcs don’t stand out all that well from the surrounding white of the head.<\/p>\n

\"BathingBathing Laughing Gull in breeding plumage\u00a0– Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 330mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This Laughing Gull was bathing in a tidal lagoon when I photographed it in May of 2009 and it is in breeding plumage, note the dark head, how the bill has changed to a dark red and how well the white eye arcs stand out from the dark head.<\/p>\n

Also this Laughing Gull shows a red orbital ring around the eye that the gull in nonbreeding plumage does not have. This image does not show the legs of the gull but they are a mahogany red color instead of the dark gray legs of a nonbreeding bird.<\/p>\n

To the untrained eye these two Laughing Gulls might look like two different gull species because of the differences in appearance.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Laughing Gull photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both of these Laughing Gull images were taken at Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach in Florida, the image above shows a Laughing gull in nonbreeding plumage that was taken in September of 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,188],"tags":[4004,4373,4053,5229,5132,4077,3539,521,3997,3995,4160,4246,3980,3996],"class_list":["post-8739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-laughing-gulls-gulls","tag-adult","tag-bathing","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-lagoon","tag-laughing-gull","tag-leucophaeus-atricilla","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-pinellas-county","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/laughing-gull-non-breeding-mia-mcpherson-0216.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2gX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1648,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/12\/17\/laughing-gulls\/","url_meta":{"origin":8739,"position":0},"title":"Laughing 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McPherson","date":"July 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Laughing Gulls are quite noisy when they are in a flock but I never minded listening to them, in fact they often made me laugh.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling Laughing Gull in breeding plumage, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/laughing-gull-calling-mia-mcpherson-8988.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/laughing-gull-calling-mia-mcpherson-8988.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/laughing-gull-calling-mia-mcpherson-8988.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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