The Black-headed Gull is the everyday small gull of Europe and much of Asia, as familiar on a city park pond or a plowed field as it is on the coast. Its name is a small ornithological joke: the breeding adult's hood is a rich chocolate-brown, not black, and it covers only the face and crown rather than the whole head and neck. For most of the year the bird has no hood at all, just a clean white head with a dark smudge behind the eye, which is how the majority of people actually see it.
Few gulls have adapted to humans so completely. Black-headed Gulls follow tractors for turned-up worms, swirl over landfills and harbors, beg for bread in town squares, and roost by the thousands on reservoirs. They are graceful, buoyant fliers that hawk flying ants in summer and paddle their feet on wet grass to coax worms to the surface. Over roughly the past century and a half the species has expanded dramatically, colonizing Iceland, spreading through Scandinavia, and even breeding in small numbers in northeastern North America, where wintering birds now turn up regularly along the Atlantic coast. Abundant, adaptable, and endlessly vocal, it is the perfect gull for learning how gull plumages work.
The Black-headed Gull is a small, slim, elegant gull, noticeably lighter in build than the familiar large gulls, with a fine dark red bill, red legs, and a pale gray back. The single best field mark, visible at long range in any plumage, is the bold white leading edge to the outer wing, a bright flash that catches the eye every time the bird banks in flight. Breeding adults wear the chocolate-brown hood from roughly March to July; winter birds show a white head with a dark ear spot. First-year birds mix ginger-brown markings into the wings and carry a black tail band, and their bill and legs are duller orange rather than deep red.
| Size & shape | Small, slim gull, about 14 to 17 in (37 to 43 cm), with narrow, pointed wings and a light, buoyant flight |
| Breeding head | Chocolate-brown hood covering the face and crown only, with thin white crescents around the eye |
| Winter head | White with a dark spot or smudge behind the eye, sometimes a faint dusky band over the crown |
| Wing pattern | Bold white wedge along the leading edge of the outer wing; blackish trailing edge to the wingtip, dusky underside to the primaries |
| Bill & legs | Deep dark red in adults, looking almost black at range; duller orange with a dark bill tip in young birds |
| First-year birds | Ginger-brown markings across the wing coverts, a dark trailing edge, and a black band at the tail tip |
Male vs. female
Male and female Black-headed Gulls look essentially identical, with the same hood, the same red bill and legs, and the same wing pattern. Males average slightly larger and heavier, with a marginally longer, stouter bill, but the overlap is broad enough that lone birds cannot be reliably sexed in the field. The best clues come from behavior at the colony: during courtship the pair performs head-flagging displays, sharply turning the face away to hide the dark hood, and the male commonly courtship-feeds the female before egg-laying. Watching who begs and who delivers food is usually a better guide to sex than any plumage detail.
Juveniles
Young Black-headed Gulls look strikingly different from clean gray-and-white adults. Juveniles fresh from the colony are washed with warm ginger and brown across the head, back, and wing coverts. Through their first autumn they molt into first-winter plumage: a white head with the adult's dark ear spot, but with a gingery-brown band across the inner wing, a dark trailing edge, and a neat black band at the tip of the tail. The bill is dull orange-yellow with a dark tip, and the legs are pale orange rather than deep red. In their first summer many acquire a patchy, moth-eaten partial hood. By their second winter they are essentially identical to adults. Because the species is so common, first-year birds are an ideal introduction to reading gull molt.
Black-headed Gulls are among the noisiest of all gulls, and a breeding colony can be heard long before it is seen. The main call is a harsh, grating, downslurred kreee-ar or karrr, often likened to a rusty hinge or a strangled laugh, repeated constantly in disputes over food and nest sites. Shorter, clipped kek and kuk notes punctuate squabbles, and alarmed colonies erupt into a rolling wall of screeches as birds rise to mob an intruding crow, harrier, or fox.
That relentless cackling chorus is written into the bird's scientific name: ridibundus is Latin for laughing. Away from the colony the birds are quieter but rarely silent, and a winter feeding flock following a plow or squabbling over bread keeps up a steady conversational chatter of creaky, nasal notes.
The Black-headed Gull breeds across a vast swath of Eurasia, from Iceland, Britain, and Ireland east through virtually all of Europe and temperate Asia to the Russian Far East. It nests both on the coast and far inland, wherever it finds shallow wetlands: marshes, lake islands, reedbeds, gravel pits, moorland pools, and coastal lagoons.
Northern and eastern populations are strongly migratory, moving south and west in autumn to winter around the Mediterranean, in sub-Saharan and North Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and coastal East Asia, while birds in milder western Europe are largely resident or make only short movements. Winter is when the species floods into towns and cities, roosting on reservoirs and feeding on playing fields, farmland, and waterfronts. Small numbers cross the Atlantic each year, and the species now winters regularly in Newfoundland and along the northeastern United States coast, where it has occasionally bred; for North American birders it is the classic rarity to pick out of a Bonaparte's Gull flock.
The Black-headed Gull is a textbook opportunist, and its varied diet is a big part of its success. Animal food dominates: earthworms, beetles, flying ants and other insects, midge larvae, marine and freshwater invertebrates, and small fish taken by shallow plunge-dipping at the surface. It also eats seeds, grain, and whatever edible scraps people leave behind, from harbor fish waste to park bread.
Its feeding methods are just as varied. Flocks follow plows to snatch worms and grubs from fresh furrows, hawk insects gracefully in mid-air during summer ant swarms, paddle their feet on wet turf to draw worms upward, pick food delicately from the water's surface, and shamelessly rob lapwings, golden plovers, and other gulls of hard-won prey. In cities they scavenge alongside pigeons and can become confiding enough to take food from the hand.
Black-headed Gulls are intensely colonial, nesting in gatherings that range from a few dozen pairs to spectacular colonies of many thousands, typically on marshy ground, low islands, reedbed edges, gravel bars, and coastal lagoons where ground predators struggle to reach them. Within the colony, nests may sit only a few feet apart, and the airspace above is a constant swirl of calling birds.
The nest itself is simple: a shallow scrape or a low mound of reeds, grasses, and other vegetation, built up higher on damp ground. The female typically lays two or three olive to brownish eggs blotched with darker markings, and both parents share incubation for roughly three and a half weeks. The downy chicks stay near the nest and fledge at around five to six weeks old. Colonies defend themselves communally, rising as one to dive at and strike crows, herons, foxes, or people who come too close, a defense so effective that other waterbirds such as ducks and grebes often nest among the gulls for protection. One brood is raised per year, though lost clutches are commonly replaced.
The Black-headed Gull is not a backyard feeder bird, but across Europe you rarely have to work to see one; the trick is knowing where and when to look for each plumage. In North America it is a genuine prize that takes deliberate searching.
- In Britain, Ireland, and mainland Europe, visit almost any park lake, reservoir, harbor, or plowed field between autumn and spring; winter flocks are tame and easy to study at close range.
- To see the chocolate hood and busy colony life, visit a wetland reserve from April to June; many European nature reserves host large, easily viewed breeding colonies on lagoon islands.
- Watch late-summer molt in July and August, when adults show every stage between full hood and winter ear spot, a great masterclass in gull molt.
- In North America, check winter flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls along the Atlantic coast, especially in Newfoundland, the Canadian Maritimes, and New England; look for the larger bird with a red bill and red legs.
- Scan evening gull roosts on large lakes and reservoirs in winter, when thousands stream in at dusk and scarcer species mix into the crowds.
- Look for color-ringed birds; the species is heavily studied, and reporting a leg ring to the ringing scheme printed on it often returns the bird's full life history.
- Mediterranean Gull: Bulkier with a jet-black breeding hood that extends onto the nape, all-white wingtips in adults, and a stouter, brighter red bill
- Bonaparte's Gull: Smaller North American counterpart with a thin black bill, pinkish legs, and clean white translucent underwings in flight
- Little Gull: Distinctly smaller with strikingly dark underwings in adults, rounded wingtips, and a bouncy, tern-like flight
Is the Black-headed Gull's head actually black?
No. The breeding hood is dark chocolate-brown, though it can look black at a distance or in poor light, and it covers only the face and crown, not the whole head and neck. From late summer through winter the hood disappears entirely, leaving a white head with a small dark spot behind the eye.
How do I tell a Black-headed Gull from a Bonaparte's Gull?
Bonaparte's Gull is smaller and daintier with a thin black bill and pinkish legs, while the Black-headed Gull has a dark red bill and red legs and is slightly bulkier. In flight, the underside of the Black-headed Gull's outer wing looks dusky gray, whereas Bonaparte's shows clean white, translucent primaries.
Do Black-headed Gulls only live by the sea?
No. They are among the least marine of gulls, breeding on inland marshes and lakes and wintering commonly on farmland, playing fields, rivers, reservoirs, and city parks, often hundreds of miles from any coast. Calling them 'seagulls' is even less accurate than usual.
Why is its scientific name ridibundus?
Ridibundus is Latin for laughing, a nod to the loud, cackling, screeching chorus the birds produce, especially in their crowded breeding colonies, where hundreds of harsh kreee-ar calls overlap into a constant din.
Can I see a Black-headed Gull in North America?
Yes, with effort. Small numbers cross the Atlantic and winter regularly in Newfoundland and along the northeastern United States coast, and the species has occasionally bred in northeastern North America. The standard method is to carefully scan winter flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls for a bird with a red bill and legs.
When do Black-headed Gulls have their dark hoods?
Adults typically acquire the chocolate hood between late winter and early spring, often by March, and wear it through the breeding season. It molts away in mid to late summer, so from roughly August to February most birds show only the white head with a dark ear spot.