Tom Smith & George Swann saw it yesterday.
Some folk are still confused as to the identity of this bird. Even in the
unlikely event (based on numerous expert European opinions) that this bird is a
'Heuglin's' Gull, then according to the latest International Ornithological
Congress Checklist adopted by BARC it is still a Lesser Black-backed Gull,
merely another subspecies. Their determination is based on a paper in British
Birds 2008 by Collinson et al. which recommended lumping these taxa. It is
treated similarly in the Howard & Moore and BirdLife International Checklists
as indeed it is in Lynx 'Birds of the World'. I thought Clements split it but
some say not so am unsure there. That List may have been revised today!
Nevertheless some modern authors split it such as Olsen & Larsonn (2003) in
their Helm Gulls book but note that that was published prior to 2008 as was the
Howell & Dunn's America's Gull book. Nevertheless, ID to ultra-taxa level is a
desirable aim particularly as that determines the origin of the bird.
Regarding the collection of DNA material, that will be attempted but even if
achieved it is unlikely to achieve a resolution any time soon. A large immature
gull present in Broome sometime prior to 2005 as I'm informed, was identified
as a Kelp Gull. It was deliberately caught for this purpose but I'm told the
blood is still stored in fridge of a well-known local birder! Having the
material analysed and compared after collection is another problem!
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mount Eliza VIC 3930
Tel (03) 9787 7136
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
