Laridae (8 Viewers)

[l_raty]

Re: Levantine little tern. Is the whole abstract available to read (for free!) anywhere?

From a Facebook post by the first author:

"In this paper, we describe a new subspecies of the Little Tern Sternula albifrons. We propose the name S. a. levantinus, the 'Levant Little Tern', reflecting the known breeding range of these birds. Levant Little Terns are, compared to Little Terns elsewhere in Europe ('European Little Terns') and Saunders's Terns S. saundersi, generally darker on the upperparts and with a tendency to show a grey rump and uppertail-coverts, concolorous with the back and mantle. Levant Little Terns are intermediate between European Little Terns and Saunders's Terns in biometrics and in some characteristics of the breeding plumage, such as the number of dark outer primaries. Genetic analysis shows that Levant Little Terns form a phylogenetic group with European Little Terns, distinct from Saunders's Terns and from Little Terns in Japan, Korea and Australia (S. a. sinensis). Surprisingly, the genetic data also show that Little and Saunders's Terns are not each other's closest relatives; Saunder's Tern is sister to Least Tern S. antillarum of North America. The relationship between Levant Little Tern and the Little Terns breeding in the Persian Gulf requires further study."​

(PS - Re. phylogenetic relationships, I would add that genetic data show that the sister group of saundersi + antillarum is the South American Yellow-billed Tern S. superciliaris; see, e.g., the attached BOLD ID tree. IOW, Saunders's Tern seems to be embedded in an otherwise American group. The Australasian Fairy Tern S. nereis, on the other hand, appears closely related to the two Little Tern phylogenetic groups. Note that there is a Japanese bird in the otherwise western group of Little Tern in the attached tree. Data are so far lacking for Peruvian Tern S. lorata and Damara Tern S. balaenarum.)

 

[Jacana]

Is there any mention or illustration of plumage other than breeding? Or where these birds go in the winter?

I'm wondering about how many of the "Saunder's" reports in the Eastern Indian Ocean actually refer to "Levant Little"...

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Linhares, H. H., Frere, E., Milliones, A., and Dantas, G. P. M. (2024) Evolutionary history of Kelp Gulls at the South Hemisphere. Journal of Ornithology 165: 105–113.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-023-02087-3

Abstract
Kelp Gull is the most abundant gull species in the Southern Hemisphere, occurring in South America, Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Sub-Antarctic Island, and Antarctica Peninsula. There is no consensus about the number of subspecies; some studies proposed two and others six subspecies. Previous genetic studies with this species show low genetic diversity at mtDNA, in contrast to the high variability found in the nuclear gene. Thus, this study proposed to evaluate the subspecies of Kelp Gull through mtDNA, recovering the demographic history and population genetic structure throughout the South Hemisphere. For this, we sequenced Cytochrome b in 98 samples of Kelp Gull from Brazil, Argentina, and Antarctica, and added to the dataset 20 haplotypes available in GenBank. Bayesian Phylogeny did not support a clade in any subspecies proposed. However, it is possible to observe the genetic population structure of Kelp Gull in the Southern Hemisphere based on haplotype frequency. In addition, there is evidence that Kelp Gull lost genetic diversity, following population expansion during Holocene around 2500–3000 years ago.