Black-headed Gulls Larus ridibundus at Lae airstrip, Morobe Province, third record for mainland Papua New Guinea.

Abstract

On 19 January 1985 a group of birdwatchers including myself, while waiting for a plane to be refuelled at Lae Airport, observed waders on the airstrip. Meanwhile, I walked to the sea at the end of the airfield and saw a bird that had dark underwings and white flashy forewings. I thought it was probably a Black- headed Gull Larus ridibundus. A sewage outfall pipe was attracting numbers of terns, particularly White-winged Black Terns Chlidonias leucopterus. Amongst these terns was not one but three Black-headed Gulls. All three birds were in first winter plumage, with a black tipped orangy-brown bill, brown on the secondary coverts and a narrow black terminal tail band.