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Brownheaded Gull
| A medium gull that closely resembles the slightly smaller
Blackheaded Gull. The two are
differentiated on the basis of the wing pattern. The blackheaded has no
black on the leading edge of the wing. The brownheaded has the more extensively
black wing-tip one sees here. Adults have two white spots in this black
(called "mirrors"). One doesn't see them in the bird on the right
because this is a first year
bird, the indicator for that being the black border to the tail. These birds arrive in Allahabad in large numbers in the winter. A favourite haunt is the Sangam with its constant flow of pilgrims making offerings to the river goddess. In the evening they fly to their roosting spots in large formations. Once I stood on the riverbank at dusk and counted about two thousand individuals flying downstream. All the ones I saw well enough to identify were Brownheaded, though Blackheaded may well have been present. They too are common here.
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