Armenian gull

Voice

Higher and audibly hoarser than Yellow-legged Gull, with a fast, barking laugh that stops abruptly. A colony on the islets of Lake Sevan keeps up a nasal, complaining chorus, and the same racket is the first thing you notice at the Yerevan rubbish tips. The long call is delivered with the head thrown back rather less far than in Yellow-legged Gull.

Identification

A medium-sized, compact gull with a steep forehead, rounded crown and fairly short legs. The mantle is clearly darker slate-grey than Yellow-legged Gull, approaching Lesser Black-backed. The bill is short and deep with a broad black band just before the tip, usually crossing both mandibles completely, and a small red spot behind it. The eye is dark within a red orbital ring, which hardens the expression. The wingtip carries extensive black with only one small mirror on p10. Winter adults keep an almost white head with at most fine streaking behind the eye; first-years are dark and neatly scaled with a crisp black tail band.

Confusion species

Yellow-legged Gull is larger and longer-legged, with a pale yellow eye, a longer bill whose red gonydeal spot lacks a complete black band, and a paler grey mantle. Caspian Gull is long and pear-shaped, with a parallel-sided bill, a sloping forehead and much white in the outer primary. Armenian Gull is the shortest and most compact of the three, with the dark eye, the short bill with its clear black band, the darker grey mantle and a mirror that stays small. Work in that order: eye first, then bill pattern, then mantle tone against a neighbouring bird, and only then the wingtip.

Habitat

Large mountain lakes, from Lake Van at nearly 1650 metres to Lake Sevan at over 1900 metres, with colonies on rocky islets and steep shores. Food is fish and insects, but in summer chiefly refuse from open tips, along with fish ponds and reservoirs; outside the breeding season it moves to the mudflats and harbours of the Levant.

Range and movements

Breeds in eastern Turkey, Armenia, parts of Georgia and north-west Iran, the core being Lake Van, Lake Sevan, Lake Arpi and Çıldır. Few large gulls have so small and so high a breeding range. Most birds winter on the coasts of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, gathering at fish ponds and harbours, and west of the Caucasus the species is an exception rather than a possibility.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

For most visitors the easiest introduction is winter in Israel: the fish ponds of the Bet She'an valley and the harbours from Ashdod to Eilat hold Armenian Gulls beside Caspian, Baltic and Steppe Gulls, which is the ideal setting for comparison. On the breeding grounds, Sevanavank on Lake Sevan in June puts birds at ten metres beside the car park, close enough to judge eye colour and bill band without a scope. Keep a Yellow-legged Gull in the same field of view; only side by side does the darker mantle and the small bill become obvious.

Conservation status

Listed as Least Concern, but the species occupies very few sites and is vulnerable for that reason alone. Water levels at Lake Sevan and Lake Van swing widely through abstraction and drought, connecting breeding islets to the shore and opening them to dogs and foxes. Closing and capping open rubbish tips removes a large part of the summer food supply at short notice, and disturbance by fishing and recreation affects colonies on both lakes.