White-winged Black Tern, Oxidation Ponds, ChCh

Bird sighting information. Use this forum to report bird sightings (especially rare and unusual birds), census and field count results, and trip reports. Messages posted to this forum will also be sent as a plain text email to the BIRDING-NZ newsgroup.
User avatar
GrahameNZ
Posts: 386
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:43 pm
Location: The Wetlands, Christchurch
Contact:

White-winged Black Tern, Oxidation Ponds, ChCh

Postby GrahameNZ » Fri Aug 03, 2018 4:03 pm

Hi folks,
We currently have a WWBT on the central western oxidation pond.
On Tues I saw a group of 6 or 7 terns on the pond, I figured most were Black-fronted but one or two looked a bit different.
No bins or camera made getting an id of anything impossible.
Got back earlier this afty and only one tern to be found.
The cap extends down the neck.
The image is a montage of the 2 best images.
Heavy crops, long way away bird.

White-Winged-Black-Tern-Oxidation-Ponds-Chch--20180803.jpg
White-Winged-Black-Tern-Oxidation-Ponds-Chch--20180803.jpg (100.07 KiB) Viewed 1980 times
andrewcrossland
Posts: 2132
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:29 pm
Location: Christchurch

Re: White-winged Black Tern, Oxidation Ponds, ChCh

Postby andrewcrossland » Fri Aug 03, 2018 9:08 pm

I think it's the same bird that's been around do since late summer. I've seen it occasionally over autumn and most recently on July 29th. Cheers
Davidthomas
Posts: 1310
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:05 am

Re: White-winged Black Tern, Oxidation Ponds, ChCh

Postby Davidthomas » Sat Aug 04, 2018 2:44 pm

Bird was still present this afternoon at 2-2:30 on the western ponds. Hawking constantly along with a few non breeding and juvenile black fronted terns for a nice comparison.

Appeared to be a non breeding adult to my eyes. Or certainly a second winter bird. As it didn’t exhibit the full juvenile plumage characteristics. Surprised by how small it looks compared to the black fronts, with a much less robust body and shorter wings and smaller head

Return to “Bird Sightings and Alerts”