Black-headed Gull

Chroicocephalus ridibundus(Linnaeus, 1766)

Native

Order: CHARADRIIFORMES
Family: Laridae
Genus: Chroicocephalus

Commonness: Common
Best seen: Year-round

01 · Identification

How to tell it apart

The black-headed gull 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".

Description · wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

02 · Where

Where to find it

Breeding range: Coastal far south Greenland, inland Iceland, temperate and subarctic west Europe across Russia to Yakutsk region, Kamchatka, Sakhalin (east Russia); in south through Caspian Sea, north Central Asia, north and central Mongolia and north-east China; also west-central Newfoundland (south-east Canada)
Non-breeding range: AF, IO, OR : to coasts and offshore waters of north Atlantic Canada, south-east Greenland, North Sea and west Atlantic to Mediterranean and marginal seas; to Canary Is. and west-central Africa; Arabian Sea and associated gulfs, north Indian Ocean; west North Pacific coasts from Japan to south-east China and Philippines; also inland in parts of Africa, Indian Subcontinent and south-east Asia

03 · When

When to look

Months this species is recorded across its Australian range.

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