Black-headed Gull

Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766)

Black-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, is a gull of the Palearctic, breeding across much of Europe and Asia and also in coastal eastern Canada. Its breeding range includes far northern Greenland coasts, Iceland, western and northern Europe, Russia as far as the Yakutsk area, Kamchatka and Sakhalin, plus parts of the south through the Caspian region, northern Central Asia, Mongolia and north-east China. Outside the breeding season it occurs in Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Oriental Region, reaching the Mediterranean, Canary Islands, western Africa, the Arabian Sea, Japan, China and the Philippines.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Laridae — Gulls, Terns, Skimmers

Breeding range

Palearctic: coastal far s Greenland, inland Iceland, temperate and subarctic w Europe across Russia to Yakutsk region, Kamchatka, Sakhalin (e Russia); in south through Caspian Sea, n Central Asia, n, c Mongolia and ne China; also wc Newfoundland (se Canada)

Nonbreeding range

Africa, Indian Ocean, Oriental Region: to coasts and offshore waters of n Atlantic Canada, se Greenland, North Sea and w Atlantic to Mediterranean and marginal seas; to Canary Is. and wc Africa; Arabian Sea and associated gulfs, n Indian Ocean; w North Pacific coasts from Japan to se China and Philippines; also inland in parts of Africa, Indian Subcontinent and se Asia