Larus ichthyaetus, pallas's gull, steppemåke

On August 20th, 2014, a very unusual gull was seen in Oslo, for the first time in Norway, the Pallas's gull, also known as the great black headed gull:

Nikon 1 V3 with Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 300mm, f/5.6, 1/800s, ISO 3200.

This gull doesn't belong in our part of the world, in fact, is is very rarely seen in Western and Northern Europe. So this individual is seriously astray, and will probably not make it back to the correct habitat.

Our visitor is a young bird, born this year.

It was tagged with a black ring tag on Saturday, August 23rd.

The arrival of the pallas's gull was a big sensation drawing large crowds: