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Shearwater ID--Turkish Waters (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter SueO
- Start date
Cory's Shearwater Colonectris diomeda
Mike Johnston
Well-known member
Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea)
lou salomon
the birdonist
http://www.ornitaxa.com/SM/Split/SplitPetrels.htm
is that split accepted? if yes, now it would be named Scopoli's Shearwater.
is that split accepted? if yes, now it would be named Scopoli's Shearwater.
Mike Johnston
Well-known member
Well, I know the Dutch accepted it anyway. Don't know about others. So to be more precise it would then be Scopoli's Shearwater (Calonectris [diomedea] diomedea) as opposed to Cory's (Calonectris [diomedea] borealis). Either a full species or a subspecies of Cory's.lou salomon said:
Mike Johnston
Well-known member
Said to be indistinguishable in the field, but Scopoli's is smaller, has a less massive bill, less grey on chin and throat, and has a prominent white wedge on the inner web of the primaries.Dimitris said:
Xenospiza
Distracted
There is a rather obvious difference in the distribution of white on the inner wing tips, reported some time ago in Dutch Birding. Not that it'll be very helpful at sea... also because of apparent intermediates: http://www.magikbirds.com/image.asp?title_id=943&show_thumbnails=False
DNA research has shown that morphology and DNA match (there is a population of Cory's Shearwater in the Mediterranean near Almería). I think this supports the Dutch treatment nicely: E. Gómez-Díaz, J. González-Solís, M.A. Peinado, R.D.M. Page. Phylogeography of the Calonectris shearwaters using molecular and morphometric data. Mol Phylogenet Evol, in press.
DNA research has shown that morphology and DNA match (there is a population of Cory's Shearwater in the Mediterranean near Almería). I think this supports the Dutch treatment nicely: E. Gómez-Díaz, J. González-Solís, M.A. Peinado, R.D.M. Page. Phylogeography of the Calonectris shearwaters using molecular and morphometric data. Mol Phylogenet Evol, in press.
lou salomon
the birdonist
probably all of them, dimitris, not 'most'. two years back they were cory's 
that's life.
that's life.
SueO
Well-known member
Thanks for the id Lou. I must say that unless a person was very familar with shearwaters, it would be nearly impossible to id at sea. I could barely keep the bird in view with my bins. The birds were very fast and would disappear behind waves before I could see them. I guessed with the camera. I was unsuccessful many times with the 'shoot and hope' method. We finally sailed close to a stationary fishing vessel that had gulls and the shearwaters hanging around it. This is where I got my not so good shots. Wouldn't have had a prayer otherwise.
Andrew Rowlands
Well-known member
Just addding a little 'historical' background here - these are almost certainly the original 'Halcyon birds' of Ancient Greek legend/mythology, (this translates quite well into 'Yelkouan', one of the more recent names for the E. Med. shearwaters) - check the descriptions from the ancient texts; they weren't discussing any kind of kingfisher!
lou salomon
the birdonist
James Lowther
Well-known member
might be wrong but i think yelkouan might be turkish for shearwater?...
just checked and it is yelkovan,
don't know whether that is derived from halcyon or not??
just checked and it is yelkovan,
don't know whether that is derived from halcyon or not??
Jurij Hanžel
Registrirani uporabnik
And it's Ielcovan in Romanian, right Lou?
Edward woodwood
Member
There was a bit of debate about this in my birding youth which i remembered today and managed to dig out the BB ref Vol 83, no 8 page 333. A letter titled Shearwaters, sirens and Hlacyons from Dougal Andrew, in response to Bill (W.R.P.) Bourne's article on Yelkouan Shear previously.
Bourne identified the Sirens and Halcyons of classical mythology with the two species of med shear. The sirens sweet and honeyed voice being derived from Cory's call (or perhaps not!!!)
Anyway it goes on into a bit of detail and is worth getting hold of. The upshot was that Dougal proposed Yelkouan was a poor name as it means little more than 'Shearwater'.
More edifying than the IBW debacle anyway.
Tim
Bourne identified the Sirens and Halcyons of classical mythology with the two species of med shear. The sirens sweet and honeyed voice being derived from Cory's call (or perhaps not!!!)
Anyway it goes on into a bit of detail and is worth getting hold of. The upshot was that Dougal proposed Yelkouan was a poor name as it means little more than 'Shearwater'.
More edifying than the IBW debacle anyway.
Tim
lou salomon
the birdonist
Jurij Hanžel said:
right, jurij, where did you find the name?
here: http://www.avestours.ro/filebank/szotar/romanlista.htm ??
i guess it is taken from greek or turkish language though.
just checked the greek name: Μύχος (seems to be sth. different) so it seems to be of turkish origin. but they might have taken it from the ancient greek halcyon.
Last edited:
Jurij Hanžel
Registrirani uporabnik
A long time ago, in a thread far far away the name "ielcovan" appeared along with "pitpalac", "codalb" and a few others. They were the only pure Romanian names ever to appear in Romquiz.
It's called "sredozemski viharnik" in Slovene, nothing to do with Yelkouan, merely "Mediterranean Shearwater".
It's called "sredozemski viharnik" in Slovene, nothing to do with Yelkouan, merely "Mediterranean Shearwater".
