Black-headed Gull (Larus melanocephalus) belongs to the smaller gulls. It is 36 to 38 cm long, and its wingspan is 98 to 105 cm. It is thus slightly smaller than the herring gull, which it closely resembles. Adult black-headed gulls have a completely black head in their summer plumage. On it the eyes are clearly visible, as they are surrounded by white eyelids. The strong bill widens toward the tip and is dark red, as are the legs. The tip of the bill is yellowish, and in front of it there is a black transverse band. From the herring gull we will reliably distinguish by the color of the wings. The tips of the light gray wing feathers of the black-headed gull are completely white, whereas the wing tips of the herring gull are black. In winter the darkness on its head almost completely disappears, so the black-headed gull has a white head in winter, with only a blackish mark near the eye.
Generally, the black-headed gull is a migratory bird that each year crosses long distances between breeding and wintering areas; only some populations of this species migrate. It is a social bird that nests in May and June in dense colonies, especially around the Black Sea and in Central Europe. It does not devote much time to nest-building, making a scrape on the ground with only a few plants. For nesting it prefers sparsely vegetated ground on the shores of large steppe lakes or in wetlands of lowland regions on the continent, and it also breeds in lagoons and at the mouths of rivers in the Mediterranean.
It seems to prefer the warmer part of the year, as it loudly welcomes the coming of spring, and with the arrival of autumn and winter the black-headed gull becomes quiet. It is a fairly adaptable, omnivorous bird. During the breeding season it feeds mainly on aquatic and terrestrial insects, earthworms, but also on fish and rodents. It overwinters best along the coast. Then its diet, in addition to insects, molluscs, earthworms and fish, also includes berries and seeds.
In Slovenia the black-headed gull occurs in somewhat larger numbers during migration, with some individuals even wintering in the Slovenian Littoral.
