East Aisa Gull taxon....

[MongolianGull]

Sorry. First, my english is very poor.

I live in west South Korea. Near Yellow sea and china.
Now increasing Large White Headed Gull.

Almost mongolicus, taimyrensis, vegae....

I want to know that how grouping mongolicus, taimyrensis, vegae.

Many Korean people .... say(based on Guidebook of Korea or...)

Larus cachinnans mongolicus or Larus mongolicus
Larus heuglini taimyrensis
Larus vegae

But, on many internet site say.....

Larus vegae mongolicus
Larus vegae vegae
Larus heuglini taimyrensis
Larus heuglini heuglini

^^Please...
..
Sorry, my poor english.

[Francksan]

Hi from Japan,

If you want to have the latest information about species and subspecies you can go on this site:
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp?lang=EN&pg=home

I'm french living on Hokkaido. I use a japanese guide but because many subspecies are now full speccies, I use this site for information and ID.
For exemple, on my guide, I have Motacilla alba lugens, but now this is Motacilla lugens.

Franck

[JANJ]

Hi Kim!

According to P. Yésou there´s 8-10 species of LWHG,
argentatus, armenicus, barabensis (perhaps a subspecies of heuglini?), cashinnans, fuscus, heuglini, michahellis, smithsonianus and vegae, mongolicus (treated as a subspecies of cachinnans in 'Gulls' but closer to vegae genetically thus treated as a subspecies of vegae by some. Might be a species of it´s own awating further research.
The situation regarding taimyrensis which probably referes to a hybridization zone which possibly existed about 30 years ago when heuglini and nominate vegae came into contact at the gulf of Yenisey and south-western Taimyr.

More research is needed, and perhaps we shouldn´t be to optimistic because it´s a most difficult area the taxonomy of LWHG.

JanJ