Before I personally toss in the towel on this bird, I'd have to say that if I'd seen this bird in another part of the world where Ring-billed Gulls were rare or accidental, I'd be hard-pressed to give a positive ID on this individual as a Ring-billed Gull. While there are some serious questions (that *are* being addressed), this may be one gull that falls into the unidentified category forever. Whatever the final outcome, though, finding an individual bird that obviously has characteristics that you've never seen on any other bird is *still* exhilerating. It is all a part of this great birding adventure which is chock full of discovery. If this bird is definitively a Ring-billed Gull, I would be most interested to learn what characteristics brought about this conclusion and secondly, how common this sort of plumage is in Ring-billed Gulls. Could this be an individual from some far away place where there are *lots* of Ring-billed Gulls that look like this? Or is this a fluke with well-defined, partial albinism? Greg Miller Lusby, MD