The Black-headed Gull is the commonest inland gull but is not always easy to identify. Its dark chocolate brown (rather than black) head only appears in the summer, the rest of the year its head is white with just a small black area behind each eye. Its bill and legs are dark red. Young birds take at least two years to take on the colouring of an adult, before that they have a ginger-brown mantle, shoulders and wing feathers.