ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October 2010

Monthly challenge to test and improve your bird identification skills.
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Neil Fitzgerald
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ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October 2010

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:51 pm

070917_100220.jpg
070917_100220.jpg (41.47 KiB) Viewed 15626 times

As promised, a photo this time.
Answers for this challenge are due by replying to this topic by midnight (NZST) on Thursday 14 October 2010.

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Answers will not be visible to anyone else until after the closing date.

The winner of the 2010-2011 ID Quiz will get one free place on a scheduled Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ pelagic trip, AND each person who enters this challenge goes into the draw to win a pair of Nikon Travelite V 8x25CF binoculars just for having a go, thanks to Photo & Video International!

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tim
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby tim » Fri Oct 01, 2010 6:48 am

White Fronted Tern non breeding
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David Riddell
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby David Riddell » Fri Oct 01, 2010 5:04 pm

I think the red legs and black bill would have to make it a non-breeding Arctic Tern.
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ledzep
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby ledzep » Fri Oct 01, 2010 8:22 pm

Another hard one. Not a White Fronted Tern because of the red legs, and not a Common Tern because the tail is extending beyond the wings. Don't think its an Antarctic Tern either because the bill is all black, leading to the conclusion that its a non-breeding Arctic Tern. Forehead looks right, and little carpal white patch also typical, small and pale.
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby Suzi » Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:09 pm

Arctic Tern - non-breeding plumage

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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby Jan » Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:54 am

Oh drat, a tern. Not good at these, eyesight can't pick up diffs.
Hazard an Arctic Tern. Help. :?
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby Byrd » Tue Oct 05, 2010 6:25 pm

I suck at terns. How about testing us with a photo of a fantail next time?

My first thought was that it couldn't be a white-fronted tern because that's too ubiquitous -- surely it must be a common or Arctic? -- but the more I looked at it the more I kept coming back to white-fronted.

Although the legs look very reddish and the forehead steep, I figure it can't be an Arctic tern because the bill looks too big and long, but more importantly (as I understand it) the cap in non-breeding Arctics is behind the eye not above it as here.

Conversely the forehead looks too steep for the common tern, and the bill looks straighter rather than with the curved upper edge as I have seen in photos of commons.

So, even with the reddish legs etc, I'm going to go with the white-fronted tern (Sterna striata) as my answer
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby simon.fordham » Tue Oct 05, 2010 7:20 pm

Common Tern
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby TonyWilson » Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:43 am

White-fronted Tern.
Cheers, Tony.
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Re: ID Challenge #4 - closes 14 October2010

Postby Will Parsons » Fri Oct 08, 2010 10:28 am

Immature Artic tern due to short legs reddish legs and long tail feathers. :)

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