Mediterranean Gull

Given that these birds are gulls with black heads, the casual observer would be forgiven for thinking that they are Black-headed Gulls. They’re not, they’re actually Mediterranean Gulls.

The Black-headed Gull has more of a balaclava than a complete helmet and it’s head is a dark chocolate brown rather than the vivid black of the Med Gull.

The Med Gull is, to my eye, so much smarter than the BHG, it’s a little larger, and has an almost gentle call compared with the raucous, rabble-rousing roar of the BHG.

Back in the day, up until the 1950s, you’d have really only seen Med Gulls on the shores of the Black Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean, and in Turkey, but they have spread to southern Europe and more recently have extended their range into western Europe and the UK.

There were at least 135 at RSPB Titchwell last week and several pairs displaying courtship behaviour. Whether they ever breed successfully at that site is another matter. They have bred elsewhere in the UK for several years, the first time recorded in 1968. There are an estimated 1200 pairs in the UK, according to the BTO. The RSPB numbers are half this, but I think BTO tends to have better, more up-to-date stats.

Regarding that black head…the bird’s scientific binomial is Ichthyaetus melanocephalus. The second part of the name, the species, translates as black-headed, melas meaning black in Ancient Greek  and the –kephalos part meaning head. The genus component Ichthyaetus is from ikhthus, “fish”, and aetos, “eagle”. Not entirely sure why it was called the Black-headed Fish Eagle…but…

The Black-headed Gull’s binomial is Chroicocephalus ridibundus. The chroico part meaning coloured, cephalus from kephalus, again, meaning head. ridibundus means “laughing”, which refers to that racous, rabble-rousing call I mentioned earlier. As in ridibund (inclined to laughter) and the word ridiculous (laughable, open to ridicule).