Pallas's Gull

Pallas's gull, or the great black-headed gull, is easily the world's largest black-headed gull and the third largest gull of all, 55–72cm long with a wingspan of 142–170cm and a weight of 0.96–2.1kg. Summer adults are unmistakable, since no other gull of this size has a black hood; they have grey wings and back with white mirrors at the wing-tips, yellow legs and an orange-yellow bill with a red tip. In other plumages a dark mask through the eye remains. Young birds take four years to mature (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in colonies in marshes and on islands from southern Russia to Mongolia, nesting on the ground and laying two to four eggs, and migrates to the eastern Mediterranean, Arabia and India for the winter. It is a predator, taking fish, crustaceans, insects and even small mammals. Its call is a deep aargh, and although colonies are noisy the birds are mostly silent while breeding. In India it is a winter migrant. SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 55% and a current fall of about 4% a year, and rates it a Moderate conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).