The Status of the Seabirds of the Extreme Western Mediterranean

Biogeography of the marine birds of a confined sea, the Mediterranean

“…Most Mediterranean breeding taxa winter outside the Mediterranean (see below), but four North Atlantic seabirds commonly winter in the mediterranean (Table 4), while some additional species are uncommon (e.g. common guillemot) or very rare visitors (usually recorded close to the Gibraltar Strait and along the North African coast: see De Juana & Paterson, 1986). Considering that no Cory's shearwaters winter in the Mediterranean, the biomass of the wintering community reaches a minimum of 100 t (see Table 4), i.e.…”

“…Northwestern winds predominate in the boreal Atlantic, while north‐eastern winds are dominant in tropical Atlantic. Thus, southern breeding species such as Great and Sooty shearwaters P. griseus and P. gravis , which follow those winds, are commonly recorded along the North American coast during the non‐breeding period, but are only recorded along the Iberian coast when they go south to join their breeding colonies (Harrison, 1983; De Juana & Paterson, 1986). The migratory movement turns around the Azorean anticyclone, and birds can use leeward and lateral winds, rather than attempt to fly windward.…”

“…Breeding marine bird numbers and distributions were from recent literature for the Mediterranean (Meininger & Baha el Din, 1986; Massa & Sultana, 1990–91; Zotier, Thibault & Guyot, 1992; De Juana & Varela, 1993; Meininger et al ., 1994) as well as for other palearctic areas (Barcena, Teixeira & Bermejo, 1984; Barrett & Vader, 1984; Evans, 1984; Le Grand, Emmerson & Martin, 1984; LLoyd, Tasker & Partridge, 1991; Monteiro, Ramos & Furness, 1996). We have added to the community of marine birds, those species that winter, but do not breed, in the Mediterranean, using published literature for distribution and population estimates (Giol, 1957; Cramp & Simmons, 1977; De Juana & Paterson, 1986; Carboneras, 1988; Misiek, 1991; Finlayson, 1992; Simeonov, 1992; Paterson, 1993). Body weights of marine birds were taken in Cramp & Simmons (1977, 1983) and Cramp (1985).…”