Sabine's Gull, Xema sabini |
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![]() Sabine's Gulls breed in the arctic, and spend the rest of the year at sea. Above and below, adults in breeding plumage. |
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![]() Above and below, adults in Fall, molting from breeding to non-breeding plumage; the bird above shows the Sabine's beautiful dorsal pattern. |
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![]() Non-breeding plumage, with the breeding all-black head replaced by mostly white with a lateral black streak at the back of the crown. The gray smudging behind the dark streak suggests that this may be second-year rather than the very similar adult non-breeding plumage. | |
![]() Juvenile Sabine's Gulls in September. Above, one that strayed into San Francisco Bay and spent some time in the ponds of the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant; below, a more normal sighting, flying in the Pacific Ocean near the Farallon Islands. | |
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![]() Above, breeding-plumage adult trailed by intermediate morph juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger. Below, molting adult left, juvenile right. | |
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