The Mediterranean Gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus) is a medium-sized gull, 36–38 cm long with a wingspan of 92–100 cm, and a striking new addition — still very scarce — to Sweden's breeding birds. In breeding plumage it shows pale grey upperparts, white underparts, and an entirely black hood, darker and more complete than the brown cap of the Black-headed Gull, paired with a heavy, bright red bill marked with a dark band near the tip. Its most distinctive feature is its wholly white wingtips, unlike the black tips shown by most gulls; in winter the head turns white with a dark smudge around the eye.
The call is a nasal, wailing "kee-ow" or "kow-ow", softer and more nasal than most other gulls' — often the easiest way to pick one out among a flock of Black-headed Gulls. The species breeds almost exclusively in Europe, with its core range around the Black Sea and Mediterranean, and although the overall population is declining slightly it has expanded northward, with occasional breeding now recorded in Sweden, mainly along the south coast, where the total is only around 20–50 pairs. It nests colonially on islands, typically embedded within colonies of Black-headed Gulls, whose dense, noisy presence offers shared protection from predators; the female lays 2–3 eggs in a shallow nest of plant material, and both parents share incubation and chick-rearing. Present in Sweden from April to September before wintering around the Mediterranean and Black Sea, it is a versatile forager taking insects, fish, crustaceans, worms and carrion over water, fields and shorelines, sometimes snatching insects in flight with an almost tern-like agility or following ploughs for exposed invertebrates.
Read about this species in Swedish →