Black-headed Gull

How to identify

Field marks

1. Head chocolate-rufous in summer, appearing black at a distance
2. Rufous disappears in winter, leaving two dark spots
3. Adult bill and legs red in summer
4. Leading edge of outer wing white in flight

Male, female and young

Sexes identical in plumage; in the first month or two after fledging, juveniles have rufous spots over most of the body and a black band on the tail.

Voice

Noisy; the familiar “kree-ar” is often heard in breeding colonies.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: January, March–May and September–October · Most records: United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal

Black-headed Gull has been recorded at 2,714 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 136 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Amwell HMWT NRUnited Kingdom8,193 records
2. Titchwell Marsh RSPB ReserveUnited Kingdom8,066 records
3. Minsmere RSPB ReserveUnited Kingdom5,874 records

Countries and regions with the most records

United KingdomSpainPortugalChinaIcelandGermanyFrancePoland

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic in Europe and Asia, and also locally in smaller numbers in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but many also remain in the milder areas of northwestern Europe. It was formerly sometimes cited as "common black-headed gull" to distinguish it from "great black-headed gull" (an old name for Pallas's gull).

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions