birding-aus

Re: birding-aus RKI [sic] Pacific Gull

To:
Subject: Re: birding-aus RKI [sic] Pacific Gull
From: David James <>
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 19:13:17 +1000
Thank you very much to those that have responded to the RFI on Pacific
Gulls. What a great response! I'll send it all off by snail mail to the
netherlands after the easter weekend. If anyone has any more to had, please
get it in quick.

I should have pointed out that Ted is keen to get to spots where he can see
as many juvenile, immature and adult birds as possible to get a handle on
their variation and the differences between populations     

At 13:27 30/03/99 +0800,  wrote:
>Pacific Gull is fairly common at Augusta, Albany and Esperance on the south
>coast but I guess that this is a different subspecies??  If they are
>different sub species, then this might explain the break in distribution
>around Perth.

For your info:

there are four disjunct populations of PG's (that's short for Pacific Gull
OK?): Bass Strait; SA (W. of Victor Harbour);  s coast of WA;  and w coast
of WA. 
Currently 2 recognised subspecies are recognised: nominate pacificus (Bass
Strait) and ssp georgii (SA and WA). The subspecies differ mostly in tail
pattern and colour-pattern of the bill. 

The northern populations on the w coast of WA differ from other populations
of georgii in having an increasing amount of melanin in the eyes of adults,
 northwards (ie they have darker eyes in the north on average) and also in
the shape of the loral point (the feathering that reaches on to the base of
the upper mandible). 

to look at this variation is the reason why Ted wants to visit the three
widely 
separated locales.

cheers,

 
David James
PO BOX 5225
Townsville Mail Centre,
Qld 4810, Australia
___________________________

To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to

Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus" in the message body (without the
quotes)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU