Yellow-legged gull
| Yellow-legged gull | |
|---|---|
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| Yellow-legged gull in Porto, Portugal | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Laridae |
| Genus: | Larus |
| Species: | L. michahellis |
| Binomial name | |
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Larus michahellis Naumann, 1840, coast of Dalmatia |
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| Synonyms | |
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Larus argentatus michahellis Naumann, 1840 |
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Larus argentatus michahellis Naumann, 1840
Larus cachinnans michahellis Naumann, 1840
Larus cachinnans atlantis
Larus cachinnans lusitanius
The yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis), sometimes referred to as western yellow-legged gull (to distinguish it from eastern populations of yellow-legged large white-headed gulls), is a large gull of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Caspian gull L. cachinnans, or more broadly as a subspecies of the herring gull L. argentatus. The genus name is from Latin Larus which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and the species name honours the German zoologist Karl Michahelles.
It is now generally accepted that the yellow-legged gull is a full species, but until recently there was much disagreement. For example, British Birds magazine split yellow-legged gull from herring gull in 1993 but included the Caspian gull in the former, but the BOU in Great Britain retained the yellow-legged gull as a subspecies of the herring gull until 2007.DNA research however suggests that yellow-legged gull is actually closest to the great black-backed gull L. marinus and Armenian gull L. armenicus, while the Caspian gull is closer to herring gull and lesser black-backed gull L. fuscus, rather than being each other's closest relatives.
There are two subspecies of the yellow-legged gull:
The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea. In North Africa it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places. Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt. In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey. In Europe there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores. It also breeds on the west side of the Black Sea; here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and Caspian gull on flatter shores. In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe. One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 (sometimes hybrid pairs with lesser black-backed gulls), though colonisation has been very slow.
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Wikipedia