Istanbul Diary - Of polite crows and impertinent gulls

Surprise, surprise, the crows in Istanbul, were really polite and well-behaved birds.  They let out a quiet caw here and there, stayed in the trees, and seemed all in all rather unobtrusive, unlike their Indian counterparts who are so in-your-face.

Istanbulli crows are actually the Hooded Crow or Corvus cornix, and the Indian one is Corvus splendens.  They look quite different too, dont they?

So, instead of pesky crows they have belligerent gulls, which I thought were Cape Gulls.  But then I referred them to Charlie from 10000birds.com and he opined that they are Yellow-legged gulls.  His detailed comment are posted in "comments" below.  They were everywhere.  Outside the breakfast room windows, wheeling over the old town, along the waterfront and atop the mosques.  Their cry was loud and raucous, and rather demanding, and I think they had gotten quite used to being fed by fishermen and the small eateries.

I think the one above is an immature - not full grown - and has a different colouration, from the adult, seen below.

The parks were filled with pigeons and common starlings, both of which were fed with stale bread - of which there is a lot I can tell you, the city lives on bread - by the locals and children.

 

I liked these starlings, related to the mynahs, very pretty birds, and they were all rather busy as you can see, hopping around in the parks and picking up their pieces of bread or worms or whatever.  

The pigeons were as daft as our local ones.  We had an amusing time one morning, sitting in the park and looking at a mixed flock of pigeons, starlings and sparrows, as the locals threw bread. The pigeons looked around with this duh look on their faces, and the starlings and sparrows were away with the booty before they even moved!  It was like watching a basketball match (oh sorry, game), between Michael Jordan's Space Jam Team and the alien Monstars!

The Bosphorus had large flocks of these birds skimming over its waters, and I never did figure out what they were.  Charlie identifies them as Yelkouan Shearwaters, a near threatened species now.

..... And then there was this lovely mosaic.  What is it - an egret?

More on these mosaics, in the next instalment!