Black-headed gull

Description:

This gull is 38–44 cm long with a 94–105 cm wingspan. In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark. The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head, pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs. The hood is lost in winter, leaving just 2 dark spots. It breeds in colonies in large reedbeds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground. Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts. It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts. The black-headed gull is a bold and opportunistic feeder and will eat insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps and carrion in towns, or take invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish. This is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar kree-ar call. Its scientific name means laughing gull. This species takes two years to reach maturity. First-year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less fully developed dark hood. Like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild, in addition to an anecdote now regarded to be of dubious authenticity regarding a 63-year old bird.

Habitat:

The species chiefly breeds inland and shows a preference for shallow, calm, temporarily flooded wetland habitats with lush vegetation. It forms nesting colonies on the margins of lakes, lagoons, slow-flowing rivers, deltas, estuaries and on tussocky marshes, but may also nest on the upper zones of saltmarshes, coastal dunes and offshore islands in more coastal areas. The species will also utilise artificial sites such as sewage ponds, gravel- and clay-pits, ponds, canals and floodlands and may nest on the dry ground of heather moors, sand-dunes, beaches and stony islets. Non-breeding during the winter the species is most common in coastal habitats and tidal inshore waters, showing a preference for inlets or estuaries with sandy or muddy beaches, and generally avoiding rocky or exposed coastlines. It may also occur inland during this season, frequenting ploughed fields, moist grasslands, urban parks, sewage farms, refuse tips, reservoirs, ponds and ornamental waters, and roosts on sandy and gravel sites or on inland reservoirs.

Notes:

Juvenile Black-headed gulls spotted in a park in urban area of Deventer, Holland.