Medium-sized bird (approx 44 cm or 17.5 in). Elegant and stylized figure. Greyish upperparts and wings. White belly and head. Slightly pink breast (more intense in summer). It lacks a cap throughout the year. Very fine bill, dark red. Red legs, too. Yellow iris with red eye ring. Black wing tips.
Wetlands
Saline wetlands to breed. Coasts and littoral during the winter.
Species present in the province only in migratory passage. Colonial during the breeding season. Layings of 1 to 3 eggs. It catches small crustaceans, fish and insects.
It can be watched especially in the mouth of the Guadalhorce.
The main breeding colonies are in the Black Sea, in the Middle East and in the Indian Ocean. In the Mediterranean it is an occasional and very localized breeder. Its Latin name is due to the Italian naturalist Giuseppe Gané. Although it is not a "capped" gull, it fits in the same group as the Black-Headed and Mediterranean gulls. In fact Chroicocephalus means "colour of the head".
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