Steppe Gull - barabensis

(last update: 8-9-2014 )

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barabensis 1CY July
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barabensis 2CY Jan
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barabensis 2CY July
barabensis 2CY Nov

barabensis 3CY June
barabensis 3CY Nov

barabensis sub-ad Jan
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barabensis ad Jan
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barabensis ad Dec

Steppe Gull barabensis adult, July 23 2010, Irgiz-Turgay (county Aqtobe), Kazakhstan. Picture: Ross Ahmed.

Shallow lake with reedbed surrounded by steppe at Nura, a small village halfway the road Irgiz - Turgay (county Aqtobe): region 470 km WSW of lake Tengiz, central Kazakhstan. Birds breeding here belong to a transition population between cachinnans (nominate cachinnans at the Caspian Sea are about 750 km to the SW) and barabensis ('standard' barabensis from the Omsk area are about 1200 km to the NE).

Below: bird in active moult: P1-P3 fully grown, P4 almsot at the length of P3 shwoing no sub-terminal black, P5-P6 missing, P7-P10 still old. Wing-tip indicate cachinnans influences, with a long tongue on P10, no sub-terminal band, and no black on P4. Short bill with obvious gonys close to barabensis.
The images from central N Kazakhstan show barabensis that often are a little different from birds from Omsk Oblast and Novosibirsk. Barabensis from the heartland show:
- upperparts darker than in cachinnans, more towards taimyrensis,
- black on P10-P4 or even P10-P3,
- compact birds, with shorter legs than cachinnans, more 'dove-like', as armenicus can be,
- 4-coloured bill with black bill-band also in summer on most birds and a white transluscent tip,
- bill short and stubby with obvious gonydeal angle,
- speckled, dark iris, although sometimes pale yellow,
- obvious white tongue on P10 down to about only 1/2 of the length of P10, so still much black in the primary,
- very saturated yellow legs, and other bare parts saturated as well.