Tuesday, February 8, 2011

World Bird Wednesday - Royal Tern

Last week, I posted about the Black Skimmers we saw in Cocoa Beach, Florida. In the same group of birds, I captured a picture of this one. At first I thought it must be the female skimmer since males have a tendency for brighter and showier plumage. But through research at allaboutbirds.org, I was able to identify this as a Royal Tern. These birds are only found along ocean beaches. They are close in size to a sea gull.


Royal Tern - Cocoa Beach, Florida


Springman at the Pine River Review is our host each week for World Bird Wednesday. Come bird watching with us by clicking on the logo above.

19 comments:

joco said...

Hiya Sally,

Good sharp picture.
Terns galore today: Mick in Australia and you the other side of the world. Amazing, this bird exchange.

mick said...

Great photo of the Tern and it looks very similar to the one we call the Crested Tern. I went and looked up Royal Tern and it is the Sterna Maxima - so apparently different from mine.

theconstantwalker said...

A lovely image of a beautiful bird. Third post about Terns from three different continents on WBW today amazing.

holdingmoments said...

Excellent shot Sally.

Sondra said...

Great shot of the royal!!

Adam Tilt said...

Brilliant bird and a great photo.

Mike B. said...

Love its haircut- very cool birds.

Springman said...

I am seeing a lot of new birds today and now the Royal Tern. What a beautiful capture with terrific detail. Well done! ;-)WBW

Stewart M said...

Hi - these Royals look a lot like our Crested Terns - different beak though!

You could have a look at some Australian terns at http://payingreadyattention.blogspot.com/

Cheers Stewart M

Pat Ulrich said...

great shot of a beautiful tern species! really nice!

don said...

A very nice close up of this interesting look bird. I wonder if they are anywhere along the west coast. I've never seen one before.

Buck said...

Your bird photos are magnificent!

Dave said...

Nice image. Its great to see a new bird, espesially when you find it and then ID it

Well done

Dave

Hilke Breder said...

Looks like a tern unhappy with its hairdo. Nice image!

tiptoethruphylsgarden.blogspot.com said...

Cute bird,their expressions always make me smile,phylliso

Anonymous said...

Very similar to our Aussie Crested Terns - possibly with a slightly different beak
http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/revisiting-a-friend/

Unknown said...

Fantastic capture! This is such a great Tern species.

Arija said...

So funny, he looks cold, and in Florida??

Anonymous said...

All Terns are such amazing looking birds! I just love each of them. I like this guys crown!