Pallas's Gull
Fischmöwe ( Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus ), moulting from winter dress for summer dress
The Fischmöwe ( Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus, synonym Larus ichthyaetus ) is a species of bird in the family of seagulls. This very large species breeds in the semi-deserts and steppes of Central Asia and winters mainly in southern Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. In Central Europe the Fischmöwe is an extremely rare exception.
Features
With a body length of 58-67 cm and a wingspan of 146-162 cm, this type is almost as big as a gull, but looks slimmer and langflügeliger than this. Striking is the gently sloping forehead. Male weighing 1130-2000 g, females 960-1500 g In breeding plumage the head is black, above and below the eye is in each case a small white spot. The back and upper wing-coverts are light gray, the rest of the fuselage and the tail are white. The secondaries are edged with light gray and white wide. The primaries are silvery white, the outer primaries each show a narrow black Subterminalbinde. The beak is three-colored; the base is dark yellow, then follows a narrow black towards the tip, and then a narrow reddish binding, the tip is yellow again. The iris is dark, the legs are yellow.
In Plain dress only the eye region, the upper head and lower neck are stained diffusely blackish, also missing the red beak napkin.
In juvenile plumage of the head around the eyes and at the back is colored diffuse brownish, the white eyes brackets are already there. The back and the small and medium-sized upper wing-coverts are brown shingled. The brown chest sides stand out clearly from the otherwise white hull. What is striking is the upper side a large, light-gray wing box on the large coverts. The rockers are predominantly upper side dark brown gray on the underside predominantly white and only at the tips brown gray. The tail is pure white at the base and shows a broad, sharply angled black terminal band. The beak is yellowish pink and has a wide and sharply angled, black tip; the legs are grayish pink. At the age of four years, the birds are fully colored.
The most common call is a deep croaking " Kräh - uh ". The mating call is a gereihtes, whining " kjauu - kjauu - kjauu ".
Distribution and habitat
The range of the species is in the middle Asia, ranging from the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea as far as northwestern China and western Mongolia. To the west of this area, there are individual breeding population to the Crimea and the northeast of Volgograd.
The Fischmöwe breeds in brackish water lagoons and salt lakes and soda lakes in semi-deserts and steppes predominantly in the lowlands, in the Tian Chan and in the Altai Mountains but also in high valleys up to 1600-1700 m altitude. While the train and in the winter quarters, the nature holds mainly located on sea coasts, rarely on large lakes and rivers.
Food
Main food of fish species are to be included half dead the most shock- diving captured from a low Rüttelflug out, but also dead or. Especially in breeding colonies in steppe lakes, however, can form the main prey and rodents. In addition, small birds and bird eggs, reptiles, swarming insects and fishery wastes are used as food. Especially in the winter, fish gulls also feed kleptoparasitisch and especially try Caspian tern and smaller gulls, but also Blässrallen and grebes catch the prey. Waste to landfills and similar places, in contrast to other large gulls rarely used.
Reproduction
Fish gulls nest primarily in colonies that may comprise 20 to 2000 pairs. The colonies were all located on distant from the shore, and thus inaccessible for Bodenprädatoren islands, which usually have little or no vegetation. The nests are usually only 15-50 cm apart. The nest is sometimes only a limited few blades of grass trough, but also often a 5-15 cm high and 50-70 cm wide structure made of grass and salt plant stems. The eggs are laid, depending on the geographical location from early April to mid-May. The nest usually consists of three, rarely of only one or two eggs. The eggs measure 53.6 x 77.8 mm in the center and are spotted and dashed dark on beige to olivgrauem reason. Both partners brood, the female but with a greater proportion. The incubation period is 23 to 29 days. The young birds fledge after about 45 days.
Hiking
The Fischmöwe is a migratory bird. The deduction from their breeding grounds begins in early October. Some individuals spend the winter already on the western edge of the Caspian Sea, but the bulk of the population overwinters in an area that, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea to the south-eastern Mediterranean ranges from southwestern Burma on Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan. In Central Europe the species is an extremely rare exception, most observations relate to individual obviously far wandering non-breeders.
Inventory and risk
The IUCN is the world stock in 2002 with roughly 97000-220000 individuals. There are not backed up data for inventory development, but also no evidence of a significant population decline; IUCN therefore classified the species as safely.