Tern ID please ...

[Mtn Breeze]

Hi everyone,

I'm not very good on sea and shore birds, doing most of my bird photography further inland.
Can someone please help out with this bird ....

Thanks, Matt.

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2.

[Adam C]

Having still to see one I'm no expert but looks like a good candidate for White Winged Black Tern to me. I'm sure somebody else will jump in and confirm either way soon though. Nice shots.

[Steve Wood]

Juv Black fronted Tern.

[Davidthomas]

Steve’s correct.

This bird in question is a blackfronted tern for a few reasons.

One: it has an overwhelmingly grey upper wing, which rules out white winged black tern as they’re much more black and grey, a deeper grey across the majority of the wing with dark black primaries than the bird in question. Furthermore their scalloping on the back is much darker and more extensive than in black fronted terns.

Two: it has extensive grey on the front and underwing, with an almost sooty bib. A white winged black tern wouldn’t exhibit any of this grey, with a much whiter belly and chest.

Three: it has a very streaky cap with a smudgy black earmuff, you’d expect a much clearer black earmuff and less extensive streaking in the cap and a much darker black.

And another thought for me is just how contrasting white the rump is relative to the tail of the bird, usually is expect a white winged black to have a much whiter tail overall with darker outer edges.

Someone who’s more familiar with them is welcome to correct me on my above points, but these are my impressions anyway from field observation and some quick photo googling

[andrewcrossland]

The easiest way to ID medium sized terns is to look at the back, rump and tail.

A Black-fronted Tern has a grey back, white rump, grey tail.

A White-winged Black Tern has a grey back, white rump, white tail

A Whiskered Tern has a grey back, grey back and grey tail.

White-winged Black Terns often have variable amounts of black speckling on the under-sides of their wings (called "dalmatian" plumage). Their "ear patch" is more vertical than horizontal. Here's some pics that might help ID them (I'll show some Whiskered Tern ones in my next post):

WW Bl Tern2.JPG (18.85 KiB) Viewed 2367 times

WW Bl Tern3.JPG (37.89 KiB) Viewed 2367 times

WW Bl Tern4.JPG (31.12 KiB) Viewed 2367 times

[andrewcrossland]

Ok, so the other possibility when you see an odd-looking medium-sized tern is Whiskered Tern, which I think are slightly more frequent in NZ than we think but they're overlooked as people aren't often thinking of them. The grey back, grey rump, grey tail is fairly obvious - ie; no contrasting bright white rump of the B/F Tern Here;s some pics of what to look for in non-breeding plumage:

Whiskered Tern4.JPG (40.9 KiB) Viewed 2366 times

Whiskered Tern2.JPG (32.72 KiB) Viewed 2367 times

Whiskered Tern3.JPG (22.84 KiB) Viewed 2367 times

[Adam C]

Great info and pics DT & AC.

Not sure how I made the possible WWB call on this. Think I was... (don't tell anybody) driving and on my phone Looking at the bottom pic the juv WFT speckled brown is pretty obvious! Don't bird and drive...you'll spill your drink!

[tim]

Juvenile BFT I guess you were meaning Adam maybe a typo on the WFT