Abstract
Many plant species produce fleshy fruits and depend upon their consumption by frugivorous animals to disperse their seeds. Even though most frugivorous birds are passerines, gulls also consume fleshy fruits and have a remarkable capacity to disperse seeds over long distances. This short note describes the repeated consumption of European nettle tree fruits by Black-headed Gulls in their winter quarters in the Mediterranean Basin. This plant-animal interaction, previously unreported, reflects the capacity of these gulls to disperse seeds of fleshy-fruited plants and highlights a behavioural flexibility that allows them to take advantage of novel trophic resources in urban environments. As well, this study underlines the potential role of migratory birds like Black-headed Gulls as long-distance dispersal vectors of fleshy-fruited plants.