Heuglin’ Gull, Mannar, Sri Lanka

In March 2003 when my friend Lester Perera and I saw our first Heuglin’s Gull in Mannar we whooped with excitement. Large gulls are sentient beings with presence. You somehow feel you are in the company of an individual animal with intelligence and personality. Heuglin’s Gulls have an added element of mystery. They come to Sri Lanka every winter to flee the frozen north. But rarely venture south of Mannar. The Jaffna peninsula and Mannar are the best places to see this bird.

By April, they are gone, back to their breeding grounds in the far North, a journey of a few thousand miles. It’s pity that Sri Lanka has failed to introduce a bird ringing scheme where members of the public are trained and licensed to ring birds to help uncover the secrets of migratory birds such as these. I tried and failed, that’s another story.

In the first week of April 2006, my previous visit to Mannar I had missed the Heuglin’s. A chance to photograph them in the varies stages of plumage was one I was looking forward to when I travelled to the fishing village of Urumalai on Mannar Island in January 2014, eight years later, the long gap largely explained by the war against the LTTE. Taking me there was a keen wildlife photographer Ajith Ratnayake, from Palmyrah House, a luxury hotel in Mannar.

The Heuglins did not disappoint. This image is of a bird in adult plumage. All gulls have complex plumages with a fairly well defined pattern of change which allow birders to ‘age’ them. Ageing and identifying difficult gulls is a technical challenge relished by the more technically advanced birders. This bird is in full adult plumage.

No gulls are resident in Sri Lanka. They are all winter visitors. The gulls belong to three age groups as follows, with gulls increasing in body size falling into longer age groups.

Two age groups – The smaller gulls such as the Brown-headed Gull, a regular migrant to Mannar.
Three age groups – Species such as the Common Gull, not recorded in Sri Lanka.
Four age groups – Species such as Heuglin’s Gull.

In their breeding grounds, each of these age groups, during summer will have an additional age group comprising of the recently fledged juveniles. In Sri Lanka all birds will be at least in first winter plumage.

All birds change their plumage in a succession of moults. The spring moult, partial moult may take 1- 2 months to complete. In gulls the first moult or post winter moult will take place in the autumn and will involve just a change in the head and body feathers. The spring moults are of the head and body feathers. Therefore a bird in its first summer would have undergone a post juvenile moult and a spring moult both of which have involved only the head and body feathers. Therefore its tail and wing feathers will be rather worn and ragged. In successive autumnal moults it will replace all of its feathers. The autumn moult is a complete moult and may take 3-4 months.

Urumalai Beach provides bird photographers wonderful opportunities for photographing gull plumages. Plus there is the added bonus of other coastal birds including waders and egrets.