The brown-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus'') is a small

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

which breeds in the high plateaus of

central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

from

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

to Ordos in Inner

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. It is migratory, wintering on the coasts and large inland lakes of the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. As is the case with many gulls, was traditionally placed in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Larus ''Larus'' is a large genus of gulls with worldwide distribution (by far the greatest species diversity is in the Northern Hemisphere). Many of its species are abundant and well-known birds in their ranges. Until about 2005–2007, most gulls ...

''. This gull breeds in colonies in large reedbeds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground. Like most gulls, it is highly

gregarious Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother was ...

in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts. It is not a

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

species, and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts. This is a bold and opportunist feeder, which will scavenge in towns or take invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish. The brown-headed gull is slightly larger than

black-headed gull The black-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus ridibundus'') is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic in Europe and Asia, and also locally in smaller numbers in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters fu ...

. The summer adult has a pale brown head, lighter than that of black-headed, a pale grey body, and red bill and legs. The black tips to the primary wing feathers have conspicuous white "mirrors". The underwing is grey with black flight feathers. The brown hood is lost in winter, leaving just dark vertical streaks. This bird takes two years to reach maturity. First year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less homogeneous hood. This is a noisy species, especially at colonies. Brown-headed Gulls.jpg, Brown-headed gull in flight -

Ezhimala Ezhimala, a hill reaching a height of , is located near Payyanur, in Kannur district of Kerala, South India. It is a part of a conspicuous and isolated cluster of hills, forming a promontory, north of Kannur (Cannanore). The Indian Naval Acad ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

Brown-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus.jpg, Brown-headed gull in flight -

Bang Pu 350px, Seagulls, Bang Pu Bang Pu (, ), also known as Bang Pu Recreation Center () is a seaside resort on the Bay of Bangkok (upper Gulf of Thailand) belonging to Mueang Samut Prakan District, Samut Prakan Province, central Thailand. Bang Pu, l ...

Samut Prakan Samut Prakan (, ) officially the City of Samut Prakan (, ) is the capital of Samut Prakan province in Thailand. It is located south from Bangkok. The city established in 1999. Transport Roads *Sukhumvit Road *Srinagarindra Road Railway * ...

, Thailand Brown-headed Gull at Pangong Tso 1.jpg, At Pangong Tso Brown-headed Gull at Pangong Tso 2.jpg, At Pangong Tso Brown-headed Gull at Pangong Tso 6.jpg, At Pangong Tso Brown-headed Gull & Black-headed Gull, Gujarat.jpg, In Western India Brown Headed Gull With Fish Navi Mumbai.jpg, Brown-headed Gull fishing in

Navi Mumbai Navi Mumbai (; also known as New Bombay, its official name until 1995) is a large city next to Mumbai, located in the Konkan division of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, on the mainland of India. Navi Mumbai is situated in Thane distr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Immature Brown-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus).png, Immature Brown-headed Gull in flight

References

*''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, *Pons J.M., Hassanin, A., and Crochet P.A.(2005). ''Phylogenetic relationships within the Laridae (Charadriiformes: Aves) inferred from mitochondrial markers.'' Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37(3):686-699

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown-Headed gull Chroicocephalus Birds of Tibet Birds described in 1840 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Taxa named by Thomas C. Jerdon