species of large white-headed gull in Iran, Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus and Herring Gull L. argentatus, following Vaurie

• Main Authors: Derek A. Scott, Two Of
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Lesser black-backed gull
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.690.4492; http://gull-research.org/papers/Podoces+2_2_+Large+White-headed+Gulls+in+Iran.pdf

the principal reference works in use in the Middle East at that time. These authors restricted Lesser Black-backed Gull to the two very dark mantled forms breeding in Europe, nominate fuscus and graellsii, and included all the paler mantled west Asian forms, including armenicus, cachinnans, heuglini and taimyrensis, in the Herring Gull (argentatus) complex. Thus, when the waterbird counts of the Iran Department of the Environment were expanded to include gulls in the early 1970s, all large white-headed gulls were identified as either Herring Gulls or Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Birds with pale mantles (cachinnans, armenicus and taimyrensis) were listed under the name ‘Herring Gull’, and birds with very dark, almost black mantles (fuscus) were confidently assigned to ‘Lesser Black-backed Gull’, but intermediate birds with dark grey mantles (comparable to the grey of graellsii) were problematical. These birds, now assumed to be heuglini, were often assigned to ‘Lesser Black-backed Gull ’ and account for the relatively high counts of this species in Iran in the 1970s. It was clear, however, that the nominate form of the Lesser Black-backed Gull, with its almost black mantle, was a very scarce bird in Iran. In the Persian edition of A Guide to the