Hi, After a quick glance at this, and having watched the bird(s) live on
TV, I agree that there were at least one and probably two Yellow-legged
Gulls, and indeed an Image search on google shows several shots of two
birds together. It is interesting that the eyes look dark in most of the
photos online...in my experience Yellow-legged gulls more often have a
light eye color. However, lighting is very tricky at Piazza San Marco,
especially when the sky is overcast (as it was yesterday). Common (Mew)
gulls have dark eyes but I would rule that species out in these
photos/video because of the flat shape of the heads on these birds, and the
rather large bills. I hope to study all the available photos later and
would love to hear comments from more folks with experience in the
Mediterranean region....there are other species of gulls there in March,
especially including Herring, Common (as I mentioned) and Lesser
Black-backed, and more rarely Mediterranean, Little, Great Black-backed and
Audoin's. But with the exception of Herring, none of these others jump out
at me yet as possible Sistine chimney birds from yesterday.
James Gibson
Silver Spring
On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Janet Millenson <janet...> wrote:
> There are video clips online of a gull hanging around the Sistine Chapel
> chimney at the Vatican, unperturbed by the throngs of people gathered
> below. (Google "Sistine seagull" for images.) Anyone know what kind of
> gull it is?
>
>
> Janet Millenson
> Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)
> <janet...>
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