Thanks to Glenn Walbek for his exegesis on the fine points of Iceland and Glaucous Gull ID. As he pointed out, they differ in "jizz." *
Most Glaucous Gulls have a "fierce" look, with a large, flat head and big bill. Iceland Gulls tend to have a "gentle" look, with a more rounded head and smaller bill. (Almost dove-like). This mnemonic has helped me remember the difference in jizz: "The Iceland is the *nice one*. The Glaucous is *the hawkest."* I read that in a supplementary ID guide a long time ago, but can't remember the title or author. Glenn described that gentle look: Kumlien's Iceland gull has a delicate face and bill. This short video shows the species side by side. https://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/eye-iceland-and-glaucous-gulls One of the reasons for confusion at Cherry Creek is that the Glaucous Gull there is *not typical* for that species, but, as Glenn states: "...is smallish, with a smallish head and bill." So it's not as fierce or mean-looking as your usual Glaucous. (Different subspecies, Glenn pointed out). Joe Roller, Denver Derivation of the birding term *jizz*, from Wikipedia. * Jizz: There is a theory that it comes from the World War II <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II> air force <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_force> acronym GISS for "General Impression of Size and Shape (of an aircraft)", but the birding term was first recorded earlier than that in 1922.[7] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizz_(birding)#cite_note-7> More likely, jizz is a corruption of gestalt <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gestalt>, a German word that roughly means form or shape.[8] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizz_(birding)#cite_note-8> Other possibilities include the word *gist*, or a contraction of *just is*. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAJpZcUC64gaWr0%2BMDeqzHd-J%2B_sf4Krt00%3Dh3ZbGhn_zc9V4sg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
