Anyone good with bird skulls?

[Deb London]

I've had this in my collection for a few years, and I don't know which bird it is.

Any ideas?



Thanks.

[Deb London]

Sorry, should have added it was found near a lake in Bedfordshire.

[healfdan]

Difficult without knowing the size but if it is about 80 mm my guess would be a gull, most likely Black-headed gull.

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by healfdan

Difficult without knowing the size but if it is about 80 mm my guess would be a gull, most likely Black-headed gull.

I would have thought the rule adjacent to the skull may have helped with the size

[Deb London]

Hee, hee, thanks healfdan, I think I know what you are saying.

I thought I'd have another look myself as I realised it was easier after I'd uploaded a picture.

I did start looking at gulls etc, and am now wondering about Common Tern.

[healfdan]

Deb
Put me out of my misery, are you saying you replaced the original photo or am guilty of not seeing the obvious (the ruler)?

[Deb London]

I'm impressed you seemed to know the correct size if you didn't see the ruler.

Is there a table of bird skull lengths somewhere, healfdan, or did you just take an educated guess?

[michael23]

looking at it, it does look tern like.

[Deb London]

I've been sent a message with an interesting link to a bird skull site (you can find almost anything on the internet these days if you know where to look ) and I do believe it is a Black-headed Gull.

Hi Michael, the tern has a length of 70 mm, so I'm now ruling this out now.

Thanks everyone for your help and good-humour.

[actionfinch]

Do you have any pics from a side on view... the pics i have in a book could suggest a common or black headed gull , i would say the first as the back of the head looks very simular to the one i have a picture of.