Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
Black headed gulls in winter plumage
Chroicocephalus ridibundus
22.8209, 72.0572
Field Notes
Description:
A white gull with grey wings in winter plumage. In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark. The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head (not black, despite the name), pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs. The hood is lost in winter, leaving just dark vertical streaks. This is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar "kree-ar" call. Its scientific name means "laughing gull". 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 opportunist feeder and will eat insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps and carrion in towns, or take invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish.
Habitat:
A small gull which breeds in much of Europe and Asia, and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory, wintering further south, but some birds in the milder westernmost areas of Europe are resident. Some birds will also spend the winter in northeastern North America. From Wikipedia. Seen at Nalsarovar bird sanctuary.
Notes:
The boatmen were throwing ghatia's at them, which is a local dish prepared by frying gram flour+spices. I asked them not to do it and they replied that these birds would not eat anything except the ghatia. There were 2 kinds around. One had a black strip at the end of the tail feathers and the mark was absent in another as seen in some pics. Not sure what the mark means.
Comments (4)