Scientific name: Larus hartlaubii
It is a mainly white gull with a grey back and upperwings, black wingtips with conspicuous white "mirrors", and a dark red bill and legs. When breeding it has a very faint lavender grey hood, but otherwise has a plain white head. Sexes are similar. This species differs from the slightly larger grey-headed gull in its thinner, darker bill, deeper red legs, paler, plainer head, and dark eyes.
It generally prefers coastal habitats, especially if disturbed by human activity, in fact approximately half of its population occurs in man-made areas.
It mainly eats fish and aquatic invertebrates, doing most of its foraging by seizing prey from the water surface while swimming, plunge-diving, scavenging in the wake of trawlers, plucking food from the ground or hawking termite alates aerially.
