The Little Gull Larus minutus in Japan

Abstract

The Little Gull Larus minutes, the world's smallest gull, breeds in thr regions in the U. S. S. R., the easternmost region covering Transbaikal and southern Yakutia east to the Okhotsk Sea (Flint et al. 1984). It is a long distance migrant, and all three populations according to Flint et al. (1984) winter on the shores of western Europe, the Black and Caspian Seas. In China it is a straggler only in winter to Heilungkiang, Kiangsu and west Sinkiang provinces (De Schauensee 1984). De Schauensee (1984) however regarded it as also wintering in the Sea of Japan, as did Harrison (1985) who also indicated a winter range incorporating the Pacific Ocean off Japan. Both statements, however, may have been based on supposition, since there appears to be no actual evidence for east Asian wintering ground. If as suggested by Harrison (1985) and De Schauensee (1984) the Little Gull did winter in the Sea of Japan it would surely have been reported regularly, if not commonly, from South Korea and Japan, but in fact it has not. There are no (?) records from the Korean Peninsula and it had not been reported from Japan prior to 1974 (see Austin & Kuroda 1953, Ornithological Society of Japan) and sinee 1974 only two records have been noted from Japan surprisingly neither of which was from the Sea of Japan (Brazil in press). The paucity of records suggests that both Harrison (1985) and De Schauensee (1984) are incorrect.