139© British Birds 102 • March 2009 • 139–141

As a consequence of our paper on this subject(Brit. Birds 101: 364–375), we have receivedsome feedback from Recorders and fromnational committees. We therefore suggest thatthe following conventions might be adopted forthe areas named.

39. Yorkshire The Recorders for the YorkshireNaturalists’ Union would prefer all records to bedescribed simply as ‘Yorkshire’, leaving thematter of subdivisions to their own discretion.

40. Cleveland Although this remains two Areasof Double Recording (with Co. Durham andYorkshire), records should be quoted innational summaries simply as ‘Cleveland’. Theother County Recorders have not abandoned

their claims to ancient territories, but they canextract such records as they please to satisfytheir interest.

W2 Glamorgan This area has long beenreported on by two societies, with no overlap.Nonetheless, the Welsh Ornithological Societyconsiders it a single area and would prefer thatrecords from one vice-county should not beseparated into ‘Gower’ and ‘East Glamorgan’.We might also point out that parts of thecounty are not exactly described by these titles;the citizens of Port Talbot do not live in Gowerand those of Porthcawl would be surprised tolearn that they were in East Glamorgan.

LettersRecording areas of Great Britain

David K. BallanceFlat Two, Dunboyne, Bratton Lane, Minehead, Somerset TA24 8SQA. Judith Smith12 Edge Green Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan WN4 8SL

Iran and the Western PalearcticDefining zoogeographic regions is a complexissue and there are several possible approaches.One is to consider the number of endemicspecies, assuming that high levels of endemismindicate close zoogeographic affinity amongdifferent parts of a potential region. With reference to thisapproach, I contendthat Iran is bestregarded as part of the WesternPalearctic because ofthe high number ofbird species endemicto an area com-prising the WesternPalearctic (as gener-ally defined) andIran. Moreover, theIranian avifauna iscloser to the Euro-pean one than it isto that of someother parts of theWestern Palearctic(e.g. Syria and Iraq;see below). This hasbeen largely over-

looked for several reasons, including a lack ofinformation on the birds of Iran (since it isfamiliar to so few western ornithologists) andthe fact that Iran falls outside the WesternPalearctic as defined in BWP.

In addition to about 90 species that are

94. Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata, Iran, April 2007.This is one of several common and widespread European species that breed across

much of Iran but are rare or absent from Syria, Iraq and Jordan.

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140 British Birds 102 • March 2009 • 139–141

endemic to the Western Palearctic 1, there areapproximately 39 species which are ‘near-endemic’ 2, i.e. which breed mainly in theWestern Palearctic but which also have small

populations beyondits borders (see table 1). This is an approximatefigure since what qualifies as ‘near-endemic’ is to someextent subjective.

As defined here,four Western Pale-arctic near-endemicsalso breed in the Nearctic, whileseven also breed inwestern Siberia(table 1). However, amuch larger numberof the WesternPalearctic near-endemics occur inIran than in otherregions. A minorityof these – includingLevant Sparrow-hawk Accipiter brevipes and Black-eared WheatearOenanthe hispanica(Kazakhstan), andRing Ouzel Turdustorquatus (Turk-menistan) – alsobreed in other areas,but for the majority,the populations thatoccur in Iran are theonly ones beyondthe Western Palearctic.A large proportionof these near-endemics are typicalMiddle Easternbirds, includingHume’s Owl Strixbutleri, Kurdistan

Wheatear O. xanthoprymna , Basra ReedWarbler Acrocephalus griseldis and Dead SeaSparrow Passer moabiticus. But there are alsosome ‘very European’ birds that are endemic to

Letters

95. Dead Sea Sparrow Passer moabiticus, Iran, April 2007. Dead Sea Sparrow is one of more than 20 Western Palearctic near-endemics; it also breeds in Iran and there

is a small population in Afghanistan.

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96. Green Warbler Phylloscopus nitidus, Iran, April 2008. Now recognised as a fullspecies, Green Warbler is another taxon breeding in both the Western Palearctic

and Iran but not elsewhere. Birds in Iran tend to be strikingly yellow.

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1 The ‘Western Palearctic’ is here treated as including the Arabian Peninsula, which seems more in accordance withzoogeographical reality (e.g. see Roselaar 2006), although the bulk of the Peninsula was excluded by the editors of BWP.However, this does not affect Iran’s affinity to the Western Palearctic.

2 Here, the term ‘near-endemic’ refers to breeding distribution, which is most appropriate when using birds to considerzoogeographical affinity at latitudes where many species are migratory.

the Western Palearcticand Iran, includingGreen WoodpeckerPicus viridis, Wood LarkLullula arborea,Dunnock Prunellamodularis and Blue TitCyanistes caeruleus. Thetotal number ofWestern Palearctic near-endemics also breedingin Iran is 25 (64% of thetotal as defined here).This indicates a strongzoogeographical affinitybetween the WesternPalearctic and Iran. Fur-thermore, the relation-ship is reinforced by thefact that there are somespecies almost endemicto Iran, with just minorpopulations in theWestern Palearctic, suchas Grey HypocoliusHypocolius ampelinus,Radde’s AccentorPrunella ocularis andPale Rock Sparrow Car-pospiza brachydactyla.

The European avi-fauna is much closer tothat found in Iran thanit is to that found inmost other parts of theMiddle East. Some ofEurope’s most typicalspecies are common inparts of Iran but absent(or largely so) from Iraqand Syria, including Sky Lark Alauda arvensis,Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis, White WagtailMotacilla alba, Dipper Cinclus cinclus, WrenTroglodytes troglodytes, Robin Erithacusrubecula, Northern Wheatear O. oenanthe, SongThrush Turdus philomelos, CommonWhitethroat Sylvia communis, Spotted Fly-catcher Muscicapa striata, Coal Tit Periparusater, Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris,Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, Green-finch Carduelis chloris and Linnet C. cannabina.

In summary, there is a close association

141British Birds 102 • March 2009 • 139–141

Letters

Table 1. Western Palearctic near-endemics, with their breeding distributionbeyond the Western Palearctic. Of the 39 species, 25 breed in Iran.

+ Iran + other areas

Pink-footed Goose Anser brachyrhynchus GreenlandBarnacle Goose Branta leucopsis GreenlandCaucasian Black Grouse Tetrao mlokosiewiczi �Caspian Snowcock Tetraogallus caspius �Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus CanadaLevant Sparrowhawk Accipiter brevipes √ � KazakhstanLesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina � Indian subcontinentSooty Falcon Falco concolor Tropical AfricaLesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus West Siberia Hume’s Owl Strix butleri �Green Woodpecker Picus viridis �Syrian Woodpecker Dendrocopos syriacus �Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos medius �Thekla Lark Galerida theklae Tropical AfricaWood Lark Lullula arborea �Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis Greenland, West Siberia Dunnock Prunella modularis �Black-eared Wheatear Oenanthe hispanica � Kazakhstan Kurdistan Wheatear Oenanthe xanthoprymna �Ring Ouzel Turdus torquatus � Turkmenistan River Warbler Locustella fluviatilis West Siberia Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola West Siberia Marsh Warbler Acrocephalus palustris � West Siberia Basra Reed Warbler Acrocephalus griseldis �Green Warbler Phylloscopus nitidus �Semi-collared Flycatcher Ficedula semitorquata �Iraq Babbler Turdoides altirostris �Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus �Crested Tit Lophophanes cristatus West Siberia Sombre Tit Poecile lugubris �Western Rock Nuthatch Sitta neumayer �Palestine Sunbird Cinnyris osea Tropical Africa Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator �Masked Shrike Lanius nubicus �Dead Sea Sparrow Passer moabiticus � Afghanistan Arabian Golden Sparrow Passer euchlorus Tropical Africa Golden-winged Grosbeak Rhynchostruthus socotranus Tropical Africa Parrot Crossbill Loxia pytyopsittacus West Siberia Black-headed Bunting Emberiza melanocephala �

Magnus UllmanTriangeln 13, SE-272 38 Brantevik, Sweden

between the avifauna of Iran and that of theWestern Palearctic, and there seems no biolog-ical basis to include Iraq or Syria in the regionand not Iran (or at least the majority of it).Several oriental species breed in southeast Iran,and the border between the Palearctic and Ori-ental regions is beyond the scope of this letter(but see Roselaar 2006).

Reference

Roselaar, C. S. 2006.The boundaries of the Palearcticregion. Brit. Birds 99: 602–618.