Larus armenicus

Phenotypic characterization, taxonomic rank and phylogenetic relationships of Armenian Gull Larus armenicus

Dorit Liebers & Andreas J. Helbig

published: Limicola 13-6, 1999 (in German, with English summary)

Fig 20: Larus armenicus at Tuz Golu, Turkey, May 1999. Picture: Andreas J. Helbig.
Missing inner primaries indicate that the complete moult has started. Therefore, exact number of primaries with black for the birds in the colonies hard to quantify.

This picture should illustrate Type I birds. In most birds at Tuz and Van Golu a white mirror was only present on P10 (79% no mirror on P9), where it covers both inner and outer-web, but some birds showed a limited P10 mirror only on the inner-web (Tuz & Van Golu, n = 232, birds scored from randomly photographed alarming adults over the colony).

Double-scorings can not be excluded, using this photograph-method in a flock of gulls. Also, very small P9 mirrors are probably missed in such photographs, and an example may be this very Fig. 20, which should illustrate Type I birds with only a mirror on P10, while the picture may also show a bird with a very small mirror on P9.
However, notwithstanding the possible omission of the method, 79% of the birds showing a mirror on P10 only, is close to the figure of 72% given for armenicus from Lake Sevan colony in Armenia (n = 42, Buzun 1993a).