Goéland ichthyaète

Identification

This is a very large gull, being easily the world's largest black-headed gull and the third largest species of gull in the world, after the great black-backed gull and the glaucous gull. It measures 55–72 cm (22–28 in) in length with a 142 to 170 cm (56 to 67 in) wingspan. Weight can vary from 0.96–2.1 kg (2.1–4.6 lb), with an average of 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) in males and 1.22 kg (2.7 lb) in females. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 43.5 to 52 cm (17.1 to 20.5 in), the bill is 4.7 to 7.3 cm (1.9 to 2.9 in) and the tarsus is 6.5 to 8.4 cm (2.6 to 3.3 in). Summer adults are unmistakable, since no other gull of this size has a black hood. The adults have grey wings and back, with conspicuous white "mirrors" at the wing tips. The legs are yellow and the bill is orangey-yellow with a red tip.<p>In all other plumages, a dark mask through the eye indicates the vestiges of the hood. The call is a deep aargh cry. Young birds attain largely grey upperparts quite rapidly, but they take four years to reach maturity.

Taxonomie

Nom scientifique

Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus

Autorité

(Pallas, 1773)

Ordre

Accipitriformes

Famille

Accipitridés

Genre

Ichthyaetus

Répartition et habitat

This species breeds in colonies in marshes and islands from southern Russia to Mongolia. It is migratory, wintering in the eastern Mediterranean, Arabia and India. This gull nests on the ground, laying between two and four eggs.<p>It occurs in western Europe only as a vagrant. In Great Britain a recent review left a single occurrence in 1859 as the only acceptable record of this bird. The species also occurs as a vagrant in differing parts of the Indian Ocean, south of its normal range, and along the northern and eastern coasts of Africa, where it visits annually on an irregular basis.

Aire de reproduction

PAL : patchily on lake islands from Crimea to Kazakhstan, w, s Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia (w, c China)

Aire hors reproduction

to coasts of Black, Caspian, and Aral seas; Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal (North Indian Ocean) to Bangladesh and Gulf of Martaban (sc Myanmar); also large n, c rivers of India and Myanmar

Migration

Complete migrants

Comportement

This bird has a deep, rather nasal flight-call which resembles the call of the lesser black-backed gull. Although they are noisy at colonies, Pallas's gulls are mostly silent when breeding.<p>These birds are predatory, taking fish, crustaceans, insects and even small mammals.<p>The Pallas's gull is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Conservation

Tendance de la population

rising