| White-eyed Gull | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Laridae |
| Genus: | Ichthyaetus |
| Species: | Ichthyaetus leucophthalmus |
The White-eyed Gull (Ichthyaetus leucophthalmus) is a small gull endemic to the Red Sea. It is closely related to the sympatric, commoner Sooty Gull.
Description[]
Juvenile.
It is a gull with a length of 39-43 cm, 110-115 cm wingspan and 275-415 g of mass. There is a hood, completely black in breeding plumage, but scattered with tiny white dots in nonbreeding plumage, that goes down to the upper throat. A white bar is on each side of the neck. Below that, the presence of grey colors are on the breast, most of the upperparts, including the underwings, and slightly on the flanks, those on the wing primaries being the darkest and much of the darker scheme being on the upperparts. A white trailing edge is on the wings, mostly the secondaries. Rest of the plumage is white.
Adult plumage is fully obtained in 2-3 years of age. The plumage of juveniles differ from adults by their chocolate brown head, neck and breast, the brown, broadly pale-fringed, feathers to the upperparts and upperwings, and the black tail. Greyer head, breast and upperpart feathering is acquired in the 1st winter. The plumage resembles that of adults, though lacking the hood, in 2nd winter.
The species' distinctive, long slender bill is deep red and black-tipped in adults but mostly or completely black in younger birds. The legs are yellow, brightest in adults, particularly in their breeding plumage, and dullest in juveniles. Its common name does not refer to the eyes, which are not actually white, but the 2 white eye-crescents found in all ages, though narrower in younger birds.
Behavior[]
Feeding[]
This species mostly forages in the open coastal sea, but it has been noted individuals in Egypt may also use garbage dumps as a food source, and in the northern parts of its range, it scavenges and will also eat all types of foods (i.e. meat, rice, bread, watermelon and flying insects), though not as much to a degree as the Sooty Gull does. The diet mostly consists of fish, but also includes crustaceans, molluscs and annelids. The bird also eats fruits and plants such as Nitraria retusa and is known to predate the eggs and nestlings of the Lesser Crested Tern.
Breeding and Nesting[]
This bird breeds in loose colonies from July to September. Its nest, where 2 or 3 eggs are laid, is a shallow depression in the ground, surrounded by some material, on bare, rocky terrain or on open sandy areas.
Distribution[]
Endemic to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, this primarily coastal, largely sedentary species breeds on remote inshore islands containing rocks and sandy beaches, such as the Siyal Islands, as well as coastal reefs. Outside the breeding season, White-eyed Gulls can also be found in the Gulf of Aqaba and on the open sea. Vagrants have been documented in Turkey, the Levant, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Iran.
Status[]
Considered as among the rarest gulls in the world, with a population of 35,800-37,800 individuals, White-eyed Gulls experience human pressure and oil pollution as their major threats. Other threats arise from introduced predators to the islands they breed in, the use of chicks and eggs for human consumption (especially in Somalia), and drilling for oil exploration. Despite that, as last assessed in summer 2018, IUCN evaluated the status of this species as Least Concern. Before this assessment, it was evaluated as Near Threatened for many years since 2004. Even though the population trend has still shown to be stable, IUCN fears a population decline within the next three generations (around 33 years).