Blue-billed White Tern (Gygis candida) | Photos and ID

LCLeast Concern

Marine

Blue-billed White Tern (Gygis candida), photo 1 — Photo: DimiTalen at Dutch Wikipedia · Public domain

ID tip

A medium-sized all-white tern. The eyes are narrow and are dark in colour. The bill is black in color with blue in the base, hence its name. The shape of the bill is thick and "daggerlike" with a sharp-pointed tip. Legs are slaty-blue in color, with yellow or white webs. The immature is similar to the adult, except the body and wings are fringed with brown and the base of bill is black in colour.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Blue-billed White Tern

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is June, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Blue-billed White Tern

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 8 countries with regular records, and 18 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Seychelles French Polynesia Cook Islands Guam NF UM IO Marshall Islands

Recorded as a rare visitor in United States, Australia, Costa Rica, American Samoa, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, CC, Pitcairn Islands, Tuvalu, Samoa, Colombia, Fiji, Indonesia, Maldives, New Caledonia, TF, Tonga.

About the Blue-billed White Tern

The blue-billed white tern is a small seabird found in Pacific and Indian oceans. This species was previously considered as conspecific with the Atlantic white tern and the little white tern, but is now recognised as a separate species. It is known as manu-o-kū in Hawaiian. In the Cook Islands, it is known as the kakaia.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Little White TernGygis microrhynchaThe little white tern is much smaller and has a more slender bill than any subspecies of the common white tern.

Atlantic White TernGygis albaThe Atlantic white tern is 23–30 cm (9.1–11.8 in) long with a wingspan of 76–87 cm (30–34 in).

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