The birds of Kurdistan Province, western Iran

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Monograph
The birds of Kurdistan Province, western Iran INTRODUCTION Many international and Iranian ornithologists investigated the avifauna of Iran over the past two centuries (Khaleghizadeh 2007;Roselaar & Aliabadian 2007). As a result, a total of 551 bird species from 26 orders and 84 families was recorded from Iran (Khaleghizadeh et al. 2017b). While the avifauna of the southern Caspian region and northwestern, northeastern, and southern regions of Iran was well covered in these studies, that of some provinces in the west was scantily covered ( Roselaar & Aliabadian 2007;Khaleghizadeh et al. 2011).
Situated in western Iran, Kurdistan Province supports a significant number of bird species, especially some globally threatened species. While the herpetofauna (Rastegar-Pouyani et al. 2009;Rastegar-Pouyani 2011;Bahmani et al. 2012Bahmani et al. , 2014 and ichthyofauna (Esmaeili et al. 2011(Esmaeili et al. , 2017Imanpour-Namin et al. 2015;Zarei & Rajabi-Maham 2017;Sadeghi et al. in press) of this province were well studied, no comprehensive survey of its avifauna was published yet. The great habitat diversity of this province highlights the need for ornithological studies. Herein we present a revised and up-to-date checklist of its bird species with notes on their taxonomy, status, habitat, and conservation.

Study area
Kurdistan Province is located on the western edge of the Iranian plateau (total area 28,203km 2 , between 34.73-36.50 0 N and 45.51-48.26 0 E), sharing its northern border with the Western Azerbaijan Province, the southern border with Kermanshah Province, the western border with Iraqi Kurdistan region, and the eastern border with Zanjan and Hamedan provinces (Fig. 1). The altitude ranges from 900m to 3,390m. The annual precipitation ranges from 400mm in the eastern and central highlands (Images 1 & 2) to more than 800mm in the western mountainous areas (Image 3; Ghasriani 1998). It maintains a rich flora (2,110 species in 113 families and 629 genera or about 25% of plant species recorded throughout the country; Maroufi 2012). It is placed in the middle of the Irano-Anatolia biodiversity hotspot and includes a variety of mountainous habitats with Persian Oak Quercus brantii forests (Image 3), numerous artificial and natural water bodies (Images 4 & 5), and meadows with cold Mediterranean climate. It possesses four protected areas (namely, Shahu-Kusalan, Abdolrazaq, Bijar, and Badr & Parishan; Fig. 1) and one wildlife refuge (Zarivar Wildlife Refuge; Image 5). Zarivar Lake (or Zarivar Wetland; 35.90 0 N & 46.20 0 E), located in the west of the province, is an important bird area (IBA; Evans 1994) and a wetland with international importance in the Middle East (Scott 1995).

Study method
In the present paper, only those species whose presence was confirmed in Kurdistan Province via field surveys in the western half of the province from 2010 to 2018, literature review (Scott et al. 1975;Mansoori 2013;Kaboli et al. 2016;Khaleghizadeh et al. 2017a,b;Zarei et al. 2017Zarei et al. , 2018IBRC 2018), mid-winter waterbirds census data (DOE MWWC Data 2018), and personal communications with local ornithologists are listed.
The birds were observed through a Swarovski ATX/ STX spotting scope and a Beileshi 10×50 396FT/1000YDS sports military optics binoculars. Images were taken using a Canon EOS 70D camera equipped with a Canon 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS lens.
The classification followed here was based on the IOC World Bird List 2017. In our taxonomic list, we first mention orders and families, then species. For each species, we present the scientific name, authority, English name, Kurdish name, status, habitat, IUCN and CITES categories, and the status of each species under Iran's Environmental Laws (Parliamentary Affairs 2000). In remarks, whatever information available on the confirmed and hypothetical subspecies pertaining to the birds of Kurdistan Province and nearby regions are given (extracted from Kaboli et al. 2016;Khaleghizadeh et al. 2017a).

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The national level of conservation, defined and implemented by the Iranian Department of Environment (DOE), for each species is presented here: endangered (End.), protected (Prot.), unprotected (no letter), and pest species (Pest).

RESULTS
The avifauna of Kurdistan Province comprises 310 species of 23 orders and 59 families (Table 1).
This checklist presented 22 bird species for Kurdistan Province that were considered as rare for Iran by several authors (Scott 2008;Roselaar & Aliabadian 2009;Khaleghizadeh et al. 2011) and Iran's Bird Records Committee (IBRC). Rare species are marked by an asterisk (*) symbol in Table 1.
Among the reported species, 279 species (90%) are LC, three NR (1%), eight VU (2.6%), four EN (1.3%), and 16 NT (5.2%) in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2018). Six species are listed in Appendix I and 37 species in Appendix II of the CITES. In addition, 14 species are endangered (End.), 55 are protected (Prot.), 232 are unprotected, and nine are pests based on definitions of the Iranian DOE (Fig. 4).

Remarks
1. Anser anser rubrirostris Swinhoe, 1871 is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
2. Anser albifrons albifrons (Scopoli, 1769) is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
5. Cygnus columbianus bewickii Yarrel, 1830 is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
9. The nominate form is common in Iran. 11. Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
13. Anas crecca crecca Linnaeus, 1758 is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
79. Fulica atra atra Linnaeus, 1758 is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
80. The form that breeds in northwestern Iran, northeastern Khorasan, Fars, and Sistan and the that occurs on passage in the northeastern Caspian are believed to be Grus grus lilfordi Sharpe, 1894 (Vaurie 1965;Hüe & Etchécopar 1970).
82. Most forms that occur in Iran are assumed to be  90. Charadrius dubius curonicus Gmelin, 1789 is the form known to occur widely in Iran (Vaurie 1965).

Charadrius leschenaultia scythicus Carlos
Roselaar & Voisin, 2012 is the commonest form that occurs on passage in the southern Caspian region and in winter in the Persian Gulf.
96. The form that occurs in Iran is the nominate (Vaurie 1965).
97. Limosa limosa limosa (Linnaeus, 1758) is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
137. Columba palumbus iranica (Zarudny, 1910) is the form that occurs in northern Iran from Kurdistan east to northeastern Khorasan and in southern Iran from Khuzestan east to Shiraz (Vaurie 1965).

Bubo bubo interpositus Rothschild & Hartert,
1910 occurs in northwestern and northern Iran (Vaurie 1960(Vaurie , 1963b. Bubo bubo nikolskii Zarudny, 1905 occurs in Khorasan south to Sistan, west to Kerman, and in the Zagros west at least as far as Lorestan (Vaurie 1965 (Tschusi, 1904) occurs in Iran except in the northwestern and northern regions (Vaurie 1965 169. Falco cherrug cherrug Gray, 1834 was recorded in northwestern Iran (Vaurie 1965;Hüe & Etchécopar 1970). Paludan (1938) mentioned a record of F. c. saceroides from Kermanshah. Northeastern Iran is somewhat close to its global range but any specimen from western Iran is well outside the known global range of this form.
197. Eremophila alpestris penicillata (Gould, 1838) is the form that breeds in northern Iran east to northwestern Khorasan and in western Iran southeast through the Zagros to Fars (Vaurie 1959;Hüe & Etchécopar 1970).
198. Calandrella brachydactyla artemisiana Banjkowski, 1913 is the form that breeds throughout much of Iran except in the eastern regions (Vaurie 1959).
200. Vaurie (1959) gives the range of Melanocorypha calandra calandra (Linnaeus, 1766) in Iran as northwestern Iran and western Zagros to Lorestan; IOC gives the range simply as northwestern Iran. Vaurie (1959) gives the breeding range of M. c. psammochroa Hartert, 1904 in Iran as Zagros east from Lorestan, southern Iran, and Khorasan; however, IOC gives the range as southern Iran, while Dickinson (2003) restricts the breeding range of this form in Iran to northeastern Iran and does not include Iraq within its global breeding range.
202. Riparia riparia riparia (Linnaeus, 1758) is the only form that breeds in Iran and probably much the commonest form on migration. Riparia riparia innominata Zarudny, 1916 is probably a regular passage migrant in Iran.
205. Many authors, including Vaurie (1959) and Hüe & Etchécopar (1970), assign all populations in western Eurasia to the nominate form. The southern populations, including the birds that breed in Iran, however, are distinctly smaller than those from Delichon urbicum urbicum type locality in Sweden and are sometimes separated as D. u. meridionale. This is the treatment adopted by IOC and followed here. Delichon urbicum urbicum (Linnaeus, 1758), as now recognized by IOC , probably occurs in Iran only as a passage migrant moving between breeding areas in western Siberia and winter quarters in Africa. Following IOC, D. u. meridionale (Hartert, 1910) is presumably the form breeding in mountainous regions almost throughout Iran.
207. Cettia cetti orientalis Tristram, 1867 is the form that breeds commonly in northern Iran from Azerbaijan to Lorestan eastward to Tehran and Mazandarn (Vaurie 1959;Roselaar 1995). Cettia cetti albiventris Severtzov, 1873 is the form that breeds in southern Iran from the western Zagros in Kermanshah and Lorestan east to Fars, Khorasan, the Kerman highlands, and the mountains of northern Baluchestan (Vaurie 1959;Desfayes & Praz 1978' Kaboli et al. 2016. 208. Aegithalos caudatus passekii (Zarudny, 1904) is the form that occurs from the forested hills in southern Azerbaijan south to Kermanshah (Qasr-e Shirin) and east in the oak forests on the western slopes of Zagros to the Shiraz area in central Fars (Vaurie 1959;Kaboli et al. 2016).
209. Phylloscopus trochilus acredla (Linnaeus, 1758) is the commonest form that occurs in Iran. Phylloscopus trochilus yakutensis Ticehurst, 1935 is likely to be a regular passage migrant through Iran.
210. Phylloscopus collybita abietinus (Nilsson, 1819) probably is the commonest form on migration and in winter in most parts of Iran (Vaurie 1959).
217. Acrocephalus agricola septimus (Gavrilenko, 1954), which breeds from eastern Europe to western Kazakhstan and winters in India, probably occurs as a migrant in Iran.
223. Sylvia atricapilla atricapilla (Linnaeus, 1758) is known to occur on migration in Iran, while S. a. dammholzi Stresemann, 1928 is the form that breeds in northern Iran (Vaurie 1959).
226. The nominate Sylvia curruca curruca (Linnaeus, 1758) is a rather common summer visitor to forests in northern Azarbaijan and is a passage migrant in northern and western Iran, east to Golestan, Fars, and Hormozgan (Kaboli et al. 2016).
227. Dickinson (2003) does not mention Sylvia althaea zagrossiensis, noting that he follows Cramp & Brooks (1992). This suggests that zagrossiensis was subsumed in althaea for some time, but the name may have persisted in other publications by oversight. Vaurie (1954) believes that zagrossiensis is a valid race but indicated it with (o) [=poor subspecies] in Vaurie (1959). The validity of zagrossiensis or, in fact, the occurrence of S. althaea in the Zagros was questioned, but the specimens collected by Koelz (1954) confirm that this species breeds in this region. Clements et al. (2010) checklist gives S. althaea as a monotypic species.

Muscicapa striata neumanni
250. Erithacus rubecula rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) probably is a scarce winter visitor to Iran. Erithacus rubecula caucasicus Buturlin, 1907 is recorded as a winter visitor to northwestern Iran. Erithacus rubecula hyrcanus Blanford, 1874 is the form that breeds in the forests of northwestern Iran and the southern Caspian region; it is also recorded as a winter visitor in western and southern Iran east to Fars. Erithacus rubecula tataricus Grote, 1928 is a winter visitor to northwestern and southwestern Iran (Vaurie 1959;Hüe & Etchécopar 1970).
251. Given the wide breeding range of Luscinia svecica svecica (Linnaeus, 1758) at high latitudes in Europe and Asia, it is likely that many birds migrate through Iran to and from their wintering grounds in southern Asia.

Motacilla citreola citreola
283. Motacilla cinerea cinerea Tunstall, 1771 is the only form likely to occur in Iran.
284. Separation of the subspecies has long been a subject of debate and there is still no consensus.
289. Anthus spinoletta coutellii Audouin, 1826 is the form that breeds in Iran and the only form known to occur on passage and in winter.
292. Coccothraustes coccothraustes nigricans Buturlin, 1908 is the form that breeds in Iran and probably the commoner of the two forms in winter.
294. Carpodacus erythrinus kubanensis Laubmann, 1915 is the form that breeds in northern Iran; it was also recorded on migration in the Zagros (Vaurie 1959 Vaurie (1959), birds breeding in the Zagros south to Fars are of this form.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
We conclude that the avifauna in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, is rich and taxonomically diverse when are the main threats affecting birds in Kurdistan (see Zarei et al. 2017, in press J o ur n al of T hr e at e n e d T a x a | w w w.t hr e at e n e dt a x a. or g | 1 1 D e c e m b er 2 0 1 8 | 1 0( 1 4): 1 2 8 5 9 -1 2 9 0 6 Bir ds of K ur dist a n Pr o vi n c e, Ir a n Z a r ei et al.