An early morning visitor

This is a black headed gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus  on our conservatory roof.. It is only black-headed in the breeding season and in reality it is then more a dark chocolate brown. Chroicocephalus comes from the Greek word choria meaning colour and cephalus which means head. Thus  Chroicocephalus means coloured-head. Ridibundusc omes from the Latin ridere which means laugh. So essentially the scientific name means laughing coloured-head, or coloured-head laugher.