From Opus

Adult
Photo by AJDH
Saudi Arabia

Larus cachinnans

Includes Steppe Gull

[edit] Identification

A four-year gull. Slenderer and with a smaller head than Herring Gull. Has a slender, parallel-edged bill and small eyes sitting well forward in head. The neck is long, the breast well protruding and the hindparts slender. Often shows a pronounced hanging-belly behind the long, thin legs.

First-year
Photo by Cristian Mihai
Bucharest, Romania, March 2010

[edit] Adult

Has a similar wing pattern to Herring Gull: White tip to P10, but white tongues on primaries long and often creating a streaked wing-tip. P5 with extensive black markings. The head is white, sometimes with some faint brown hindneck-streaks in autumn. The eye is often darkish-looking, the bill often greenish-tinged. The legs are grey with fleshy to yellow tinge.

[edit] Third-year

Like adult but with generally fuller black on wing-tip and often dark markings on primary coverts, tail and bill.

[edit] Second-year

Adult in flight
Photo by Cristian Mihai
Bucharest, Romania, November 2009

Grey upperparts contrast with browner lesser and greater coverts, has a solid dark wing-tip (sometimes with white mirror on P10) and whitish head, underbody and underwing. May show traces of a dark tail-bar.

[edit] First-year

White on head and body reduced to spots on hindneck, some faint spots on breast-sides, flangs and edges of undertail-coverts. Bill and eye black. Upperwing brown with solid dark bars across bases of secondaries and greater coverts (like Lesser Black-backed Gull. Tertials dark with white tips. Shows a pale wedge on lower back, reaching the white tail-base which contrasts with the solid blackish tail-bar. Underwing often mainly white.

[edit] Similar species

May be confused with Yellow-legged Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and other big gulls.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in central Asia and north of the Black sea. Winters to Europe, northwest Africa and south Asia.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies

Three subspecies recognized^[1]:

• L. c. cachinnans breeding from the Black Sea to Kazakhstan, spreads to Europe after breeding and to northeast Africa and south Asia
• L. c. barabensis breeds in the steppes of central Asia, winters in southwest Asia and India - Steppe Gull (sometimes regarded as full species)
• L. c. mongolicus from the Altai and Lake Baikal to Mongolia, winters in south Asia - Mongolian Gull (sometimes regarded as full species)

This species is sometimes considered conspecific with Yellow-legged Gull.

[edit] Habitat

Breeds on sandy dunes, islands, steppe lakes and along rivers.
Outside breeding season at coasts, in harbours, on lakes or on rubbish dumps.

[edit] Behaviour

They are scavengers and hunt suitable small prey in fields or on the coast, or rob plovers or lapwings of their catches.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Dickinson, EC, ed. 2003. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed., with updates to December 2007 (Corrigenda 7). Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691117010
3. Gill, F and M Wright. 2008. Birds of the World: Recommended English Names. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, USA. 2006. ISBN 9780691128276. Update (2008) downloaded from http://worldbirdnames.org/names.html.
4. Sibley, CG and BL Monroe. 1996. Birds of the World, on diskette, Windows version 2.0. Charles G. Sibley, Santa Rosa, CA, USA.
5. Malling Olsen K and H Larsson. 2003. Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America. London: Christoper Helm. ISBN 0 7136 7087 8

• List of references

[edit] External Links

ID discussion on how to distinguish Caspian (L. cachinnans) and Yellow-legged Gull (L. michahellis and L. c. atlantis)