The head pattern of this gull shows it to be one of the 'hooded'  gulls in immature or winter plumage. The dark markings are immediately helpful; the combination of the dark ear-covert spot and dark bar running over the crown from the eye is shared at some stages in their plumage sequence by only a few of the possible West Palearctic species.For most readers, Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus

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