About Ichthyaetus hemprichii (Bruch, 1855)
The sooty gull, with the scientific name Ichthyaetus hemprichii, is a gull species in the family Laridae. It is also commonly called the Aden gull or Hemprich's gull. Like many other gull species, it was traditionally classified under the genus Larus. This species is named to honor German naturalist Wilhelm Hemprich, who died in 1825 during a scientific expedition to Egypt and the Middle East alongside his friend Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. The sooty gull is native to the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, and Persian Gulf, with its native range extending east as far as Pakistan, and south along the east coast of Africa to Tanzania and Mozambique. It has been recorded as a vagrant in Bahrain, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. It is a strictly coastal bird that rarely travels more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) out to sea past coastal reefs, though it has occasionally been observed 140 kilometers (87 miles) from land. It commonly frequents ports, harbours, coastlines, inshore islands, and the intertidal zone. It rarely moves inland or visits freshwater areas. The sooty gull is either nomadic or partially migratory; many populations travel south after breeding, but populations living in the Red Sea appear to be relatively sedentary. It has been recorded in Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Maldives, Mozambique, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
