No. 137 on our checklistPallas’s Gull (Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus)

The largest black headed gull in the world is a newcomer in the Danube Delta. For a long time it was only a rare guest from the east. Then, on 4 June 2009, ornithologists found the first nests ever recorded in Romania, on a new island in the Musura Bay, at the northern edge of the Danube Delta coast. Today it nests on the coast and comes to fish deep inside the Danube Delta, in every month of the year.

When to see it in the Danube Delta and Dobrogea

1. JanModerate
2. FebModerate
3. MarModerate
4. AprModerate
5. MayModerate
6. JunModerate
7. JulModerate
8. AugModerate
9. SepModerate
10. OctModerate
11. NovModerate
12. DecModerate

Status here

All year. Resident, breeds on the coast, feeds in the interior.

IUCN Red List

Least Concern

Our checklist

No. 137 of 385 · see the full checklist

How to recognise it

In spring an adult Pallas’s Gull is unmistakable. It is a very big, pale grey gull with a jet black hood, two white crescents above and below the eye, and a heavy yellow bill marked towards the end, from the base outwards, with a red band and then a black band, before a yellow tip. The legs are yellow. Standing among other gulls, it looks longer and heavier in the bill, with a sloping forehead.

After breeding the black hood disappears. In autumn and winter the head is white, with a dark smudge around and behind the eye, and the white eye crescents still show. Young birds are brown and grey, with a broad black band at the tip of a white tail, and they need four years to reach adult plumage. In flight the adult shows a lot of white at the tip of the grey wings, with only small black marks.

Feeding and nesting

It is first of all a fish eater, as its name says, but it takes almost anything it can catch: fish from the surface of the lakes and the sea, crabs and other crustaceans, large insects, small mammals, and the eggs and chicks of other birds. It often follows fishing boats and gathers at fish farms.

It nests in colonies on low islands of sand and shells, close to water, where foxes and people do not reach. It is one of the earliest breeders among our gulls: on the Swan Islands in the Crimea, the nearest old colony, the eggs are laid from late March to early April. A clutch usually has three eggs. Pallas’s Gulls start to breed only when they are about four years old.

Where to see it in the Danube Delta

Pallas’s Gulls nest by the sea and on the coastal lakes, but they look for food mostly in the interior of the Danube Delta. This is why they are seen so often far from the colonies: at Mila 23, where our boats start, there is almost always one on the water in front of the village. The bird databases of the Romanian Ornithological Society also hold many records from Crișan, Maliuc, Sulina and Chilia Veche, and from the lagoons of the south, around Murighiol, Jurilovca and Istria.

They are here all year. In winter there are just as many as in summer, and they are even easier to see, because they are busy feeding over open water instead of sitting on nests.

You can see it on almost any trip with us from Mila 23: a private 4 hour birdwatching trip, a wildlife photo tour from Mila 23, a small group birdwatching tour in the Danube Delta, and especially on the birding tour of the Danube Delta and Dobrogea, which also visits the coastal lagoons.

Interesting facts

• The first nests in Romania. The first breeding of Pallas’s Gull in Romania was found on 4 June 2009, on a new island in the Musura Bay. The discovery was published in 2010 by ornithologists of the Danube Delta National Institute.
• Neighbours from the Crimea. The nearest old colony is on the Swan Islands, in the Karkinit Bay of the Crimea, where Pallas’s Gulls have nested since 1947. The birds move between the colonies of the Black Sea from year to year.
• A fish eagle. Ichthyaetus is Greek for “fish eagle”, a fair name for a gull this size, with a bill this strong.
• Colonies we keep quiet about. Besides Musura, Pallas’s Gulls nest in two more places on the coast of the Danube Delta. We do not name them, and we do not go near them in the breeding season. Our guides have watched them only from very far away, so nobody can say exactly how many pairs there are.
• Nesting by the sea, fishing at Mila 23. The colonies are on the coast, but the birds fly every day far inland to feed on the lakes and channels, tens of kilometres from their nests.

Status and threats

Pallas’s Gull breeds from the Black Sea and the Caspian to Mongolia and winters from the eastern Mediterranean to India. It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. In the first complete checklist of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, published by the Danube Delta National Institute in 2023, it appears as a nesting summer visitor and a relatively rare winter visitor, with the colony on Musura Island. Our guides see it differently: the birds stay all winter, in the same numbers, and are easier to see then than in summer.

In the Danube Delta today the greatest threat to nature is speed boats. Pallas’s Gulls nest on low sand islands at the edge of the sea, and a fast boat that comes close lifts the whole colony into the air, leaving eggs and chicks exposed to the sun and to other gulls. This is why our boats move slowly in the channels.