canarian "intergrades": michahellis from lanzarote

lou bertalan
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canarian "intergrades": michahellis from lanzarote

Post by lou bertalan » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:36 am

hi,

in september i spent 2 weeks on lanzarote and could take some pics of the local yellow-legged gulls. i have called the galleries michahellis 'atlantoides' because they do differ from mediterranean birds but since taxonomic situation is unclear (canarian, marrocan and some portugese birds regarded as nominate ssp. and just azorean birds being pure atlantis) the temporary solution was to call them like this to emphasize the intergrade character between nominate micha and azorean atlantis.

generally, the birds are darker and stronger marked than mediterranean and black sea birds. this is evident in the majority of 1cy. some however could well go as nominate mediterranean michs, variation in seems similarly high as in more easterly populations concerning extent of postjuvenile moult and covert pattern. unfortunately, i will not be at the gull-meeting in zagreb where nick rossiter will talk about this issue as i have seen this morning. have a look at the birds in these galleries and feel free to comment. i'll come back to this when time allows.

1cy: http://lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_grp.php? ... rote%201cy

2cy and 3cy: http://lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_grp.php? ... %202cy;3cy

4cy+ (adults): http://lou.bertalan.de/gulls/m_grp.php? ... e,%20adult

cheers,

lou

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