Good evening all,
Does anyone have the up to date field guide on the birds of
China etc that also covers Hong Kong, or a
copy of The Handbook of Birds of the World (I think that is the title)? I am
trying to sort out my old records of the former “Herring Gull” that
occurs in the waters surrounding Hong Kong.
Going by a very old copy of A Colour Guide
to Hong Kong Birds 2nd Edition (1979), by Clive Viney and
Karen Phillipps that I bought when I was there in 1981, it lists two (then)
subspecies, Larus argentatus mongolus and L.
a. vegae. The species is now no longer the Herring Gull in that part
of the world but has been split into two species – Vega Gull, L. vegae, with pink legs, and from what I
can work out, the Yellow-legged Gull, Larus
cachinnans subsp. mongolicus,
obviously with yellow legs. Viney and Phillipps illustrate the pink legged race
in their book which I assume is the commoner of the two former subspecies.
For the benefit of all the other mad twitchers out there, I
use the IOC’s Recommended List of English Names [whatever the latest
version is] as my standard reference for ALL my lists. I don’t use
Clements as some of his taxonomy, to my less than brilliant brain, is totally
off the planet!
Any help gratefully appreciated
Thanks,
Mark
