Hi Tony,
Yes, there is a chance for Armenian Gull (armenicus) in Istanbul, also for Caspian Gull (cachinnans) and also remotely for Herring Gull (argentatus) in winter, but Yellow-legged (michahellis) is the common one there.
And yes, they all were lumped under Herring until the late 70s or early 80s, when they were split into two species. Later, they were split into many species. The issue is quite complicated and still dynamic – so further changes will happen. Tony, you have opened a can of worms!
Larus marinus (Great Black-backed), michahellis (Yellow-legged), armenicus (Armenian), argentatus and argenteus (two Herring Gull ssp.) likely share a common ancestor in the North-Atlantic area. Whereas cachinnans (Caspian; until recently lumped with the unrelated Yellow-legged), barabensis (‘Steppe’, currently Caspian ssp.), mongolicus (‘Mongolian’, currently Caspian ssp.), fuscus, intermedius and graellsii (three Lesser Black-backed ssp.), heuglini (Heuglin’s), vegae (Vega), Slaty-backed (schistisagus), Iceland (glaucoides), Thayer’s (thayeri) and American Herring (smithsonianus, until recently lumped with unrelated Herring Gull) have most likely a common ancestor in the aralo-caspian area.
So, if you now want to re-lump them all, then you will end up with different “Big Gulls” compared to the pre-DNA days…
Cheers,
Nikolas
