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Mediterranean gull(Ichthyaetus melanocephalus)
Phylum —chordata
Class — aves
Order — charadriiformes
Family — laridae
Genus –ichthyaetus
Appearance
The Mediterranean gull is slightly larger and bulkier than the black-headed gull with a heavier bill and longer, darker legs. The breeding plumage adult is a distinctive white gull, with a very pale grey mantle and wings with white primary feathers without black tips. The black hood extends down the nape and shows distinct white eye crescents. The blunt tipped, parallel sided, dark red bill has a black subterminal band. The non-breeding adult is similar but the hood is reduced to an extensive dusky "bandit" mask through the eye.
Length – 37 cm, wingspan – 96 cm, weight – 320 cm.
Habitat
Formerly restricted to the Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean this species has now expanded over most of Europe as far as Great Britain and Ireland. Breeding has also occurred in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Balkans. In winter, this bird migrates to Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts.
Behavior
This gull breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes; where its population is small, it nests in black-headed gull colonies. Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts.
Diet
The Mediterranean gull's feeding habits are much an opportunistic omnivore, eating fish, worms, scraps, insects, offal and carrion.
Reproduction
Laying – in the first half of May. Colonies – usually under 1000 pairs, occasionally single pairs in colonies of other species. Nest on sparsely vegetated sites, or thickets or reedbeds, a shallow depression lined with grass.Nests dense, with nest rims as close as a few cm.Birds lay 2-3 eggs, incubation lasts 23-26 days. Chick spotted brown, grey and buff on head, with 2-3 broad brown bands on buffish back, and pale greyish to pinkish buff underparts. First breeding – at 2-3 years.
Incaptivity
Lifespan – is about 15 years.
Gulls taken in the young age and grown in captivity are well tamed, but do not easily tolerate the loss of freedom. They often get sick and die. These are birdswho are best kept in the wild or in a large outdoor aviary. The smaller the chick taken, the more tamed it will be when it grows up. Birds become completely tamed,relating to people with complete confidence in the case when a pecked eggis taken from the nest instead of a chick. A chick that has hatched in the nest and has not yet dried out is noticeably less accustomed than one taken in the egg. The latter should be chosen incubated, just before or at the time of hatching. Take the egg in the morning of a hot day, so that the development can continue without further incubation. If there is an incubator, at least a homemade one, heated by a kerosene lamp, eggs can be taken at earlier stages of development.
The food for the chicks of different types of gulls can be the same. The smallest chicks are given pieces of meat and fish, flour and earthworms, bread soaked in milk. Grown-upchicks areverypromiscuousinfood.
