Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
- Michael Szabo
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
Whatever it is, that dark patch on the mantle looks odd.
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- AngryBird45
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
No Antarctic Tern today but did see the WWBT.
133 birds on my life list since 17 June 2020, latest bird Common Tern.
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93 birds on my 2024 year list as of 6:50pm 13 January, latest bird Indian Peafowl.
15 y/o birder from the Waimak and Paradise Shelduck campaigner: facebook.com/paradiseshelduck.
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
Michael
The dark mark on the side of the neck is just part of the normal juvenile plumage of at least some White-fronted and Antarctic Terns.
Ian
The dark mark on the side of the neck is just part of the normal juvenile plumage of at least some White-fronted and Antarctic Terns.
Ian
- Michael Szabo
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
Either way, it would be good to post examples of this plumage on the relevant NZ Birds Online pages as there aren't a lot of photos of juveniles for both WFT and Antarctic Tern.
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- Steve Wood
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
I also think it is a White fronted, similar to this one,probably the most obvious choice to start with anyway.
- benackerley
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
Thank you for this image Steve. Definitely looks like the tern I saw.
Cheers, Ben
- Michael Szabo
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
Thanks for posting that shot, Steve. As Ben says, it looks very similar with that dark bar near the nape. The only shot of a young WFT in flight on the NZ Birds Online website is the one below taken by Ormond Torr, which doesn't have that dark bar near the nape, so it would be good to send more photos of young WFTs in flight to Colin Miskelly for him to add to the website:
https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/white-fronted-tern
I also checked the Antarctic Tern page and there are no photos of young ATs in flight, so ditto for them if anyone has any photos they can send to Colin.
https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/white-fronted-tern
I also checked the Antarctic Tern page and there are no photos of young ATs in flight, so ditto for them if anyone has any photos they can send to Colin.
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- Adam C
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Re: Antarctic Tern, Lake Ellesmere outlet
This one from Same spot last evening. And a few skua bombs to boot!
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