Black-headed gull Larus ridibundus

Identification Tips:

• Small, tern-like gull
• Short, thin bill
• Undersurfaces of primaries are black (except outermost is white)

Adult alternate:

• Dark brown head
• Dark red bill
• Very narrow white crescents above and below eye
• White nape, neck, breast, belly, and tail
• Pale gray back and upperwings
• Pale scapular crescent and tertial crescent
• White wedge on top of outer primaries
• Black tips to primaries creates black trailing edge to primaries and black wingtips at rest

Adult basic:

• Like adult alternate except lacks dark hood and instead has black spot on ear coverts

First year:

• Head and body like adult basic
• Pale-based bill
• White tail with black terminal band
• Pale gray upperwing marked by dark carpal bar, dark trailing edge and slight white wedge in outer primaries
• Second-year birds are essentially identical to birds in adult basic plumage

Similar species:

Bonaparte's Gulls are superficially similar but have dark bills in all plumages and pale undersurfaces to the primaries. First-year Bonaparte's have thinner carpal bars and trailing edges to the wing. Adult Little Gulls have no black on the uppersurface of the wings, dark bills, and have wholly dark underwings. First-year Little Gulls are easily distinguished by the pale trailing edge to the wing and dark bill. Laughing and Franklin's Gulls both have much darker gray backs, never show similar wing patterns and have much thicker, more robust bills. First-year Ring-billed is somewhat similar to first-year Black-headed but lacks the dark ear spot and dark underwings.