Bird Identification needed please

[welshgold]

help! nice looking bird.....

[htcdude]

They are nice looking when they're clean and in the right light :-)

It's a Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) in winter plumage, which is why it doesn't have a black head (even though they're more chocolate brown )

Nige

[pammosley]

Hi, I think it`s a black headed gull. They loose their black head in winter & just have 2 patches at the sides. I may be proven wrong yet though, I`m hopeless at Gull IDs
Lovely photo

[Dogghound]

I agree its a Black-headed Gull, they have quite distinctive underwing colouration too.

[welshgold]

Thanks for the info folks, much appreciated
Here's another pic of the same gull...

[faz]

as above

[david156]

Just something else to add to this. Keep a look out amongst winter plumage Black Headed Gulls, you never know what might crop up.

At a glance these gulls look very similar but the front one is a Mediterranean Gull. Adult meds have no black on their wings but the younger ones do.

Happy Gull Watching

[Dogghound]

Mediterranean gulls also lack the white panel in the wing, Black-head have this which is a good feature to look for in flight, its obvious in birds quite far away.