Brown-headed Gull

How to identify

Field marks

1. Head pale rufous in summer plumage, paler than Black-headed Gull
2. Body pale gray; bill and legs red
3. Wingtips black with conspicuous white mirrors
4. Rufous hood disappears in winter, leaving only dark streaks

Male, female and young

First-year juvenile has a black band at the tail tip, more dark areas on the wings and a less even hood in summer.

Voice

Very noisy, especially in breeding colonies.

Similar species

Black-headed Gull

Brown-headed Gull is slightly larger than Black-headed Gull, with a paler head in summer plumage.

Where and when it's recorded

Brown-headed Gull has been recorded at 348 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 16 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Pak Thale Nature ReserveThailand2,120 records
2. Bang Pu – Recreation CenterThailand1,473 records
3. Changaram Wetlands – EzhupunnaIndia1,170 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaThailandChinaSri LankaBangladeshMyanmar (Burma)CambodiaMalaysia

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 brown-headed gull (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus) is a small gull which breeds in the high plateaus of central Asia from Tajikistan to Ordos in Inner Mongolia. It is migratory, wintering on the coasts and large inland lakes of the Indian subcontinent. As is the case with many gulls, was traditionally placed in the genus Larus.

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

Questions