Gull with gray head

The Mouette with gray head ( Larus cirrocephalus ) is a bird of the family of the Laridae.

Systematic position

There exist two subspecies of Larus cirrocephalus :

Larus cirrocephalus cirrocephalus (Old-fashioned, 1818): South America
Larus cirrocephalus poiocephalus (Swainson, 1837): Africa. This second subspecies is slightly smaller and darker than the first.

Description

There is no sexual Dimorphisme at this species.

This bird resembles a Black-headed gull of big size (39 to 42 cm length, 100 cm of scale), with wings a little broader, and legs and a nozzle a little longer. The wings are darker: the bottom is of a darker gray, and the external primary feathers are black over a bigger length. The nozzle and the legs are red. The lower part of the wings is gray dark, with the black end of the feathers.

In summer, it presents a gray cap limited by a black line on the nape of the neck. In winter, the head is coloured little: the cap disappears, leaving only some dark traces.

Behavior

Social behavior

Like all the gulls, the Gull with gray head is very gregarious, especially in winter, that it is on the surfaces of nourrissage or the rest areas. It can form groups cash hundreds, even of the thousands of individuals.

Food

Piscivorous.

Reproduction

This gull niche in large colonies in the roselières and the marshes. It lays two or three eggs in a nest which can be floating or frame on the ground (see a photograph of egg and oisillon on this page).

This bird reaches its sexual maturity at two years.

Vocalizations

The gull with gray head pushes raucous cawings.

Distribution and habitat

This species lives on the continents African and South American.

The African populations are primarily sub-Saharan, but erratic individuals were announced to Morocco, in Algeria, in Tunisia and on banks of the Red Sea. It is accidental in Europe; it was announced in Spain.
Les South American populations is located primarily between Brazil and Argentina at the East, and between Peru and Chile in the West.

She lives mainly along the coasts or on estuaries or water levels located between 0 and 1.000 m of altitude. It is very rare to at sea meet her with broad.

Statute and safeguarding

AEWA classified this species of category B1 (Populations roughly cash between 25.000 and 100.000 individuals) for the western and South-African populations, and C1 (Populations more than cash 100.000 individuals) for the populations of the center and the east of Africa.

The IUCN estimates into 2006 that the world population of the Gull with gray head includes/understands between 240.000 and 440.000 individuals. In fact, this organization classifies the species in the " category; concern mineure".

This species is protected neither by the QUOTE, neither by the Convention of Bonn, nor by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Philately

Several countries emitted a stamp with the effigy of the gull with gray head, inter alia Botswana, Namibia and Senegal.

Photographs and vidéos

Photographs of Larus cirrocephalus (plumage of nesting and wintering) on aves of Chile (GAVIOTA OF GRAY CAPUCHO)
Gallery photo Flickr on Avibase
a pretty photograph of Larus cirrocephalus on Kenya birds
Video IBC: adult in plumage of wintering

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