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WetlandPlatform nestMedium · 84 g
ID tip
The size, black cap, strong bill (29–34 mm in males, 25–27 mm and stubbier in females, with a pronounced gonys) and more positive flight recall common or Arctic tern, but the short, forked-looking tail and dark grey breeding plumage above and below are typically marsh tern characteristics. The summer adult has white cheeks and red legs and bill. The crown is flecked with white in the juvenile, and the hindcrown is more uniformly blackish, though in the winter adult this too is flecked with white.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Whiskered Tern
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 11 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is January, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Whiskered Tern
The map shades 122 countries with regular records, and 10 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.
Recorded as a rare visitor in United States, Norway, Finland, Mali, Niger, Iceland, Monaco, Malta, Djibouti, South Sudan.
About the Whiskered Tern
The whiskered tern is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow". The specific hybridus is Latin for hybrid; Peter Simon Pallas thought it might be a hybrid of white-winged black tern and common tern, writing "Sterna fissipes [Chlidonias leucopterus] et Hirundine [Sterna hirundo] natam".
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Black TernChlidonias nigerAdults are 25 cm (10 in) long, with a wingspan 61 cm (24 in), and weigh 62 g (2+1⁄8 oz).
White-winged TernChlidonias leucopterusAdult birds in summer have short red legs and a short black bill (small and stubby, measuring 22–25 mm from the feathers, decidedly shorter than the head), a black neck (often with a pale gray back) and belly, very dark grey back, with a white rump and light grey (almost white) tail, which often looks 'square' in juveniles.
Black-fronted TernChlidonias albostriatusBlack-fronted terns are considered medium-small in size.
Side by side: Black Tern vs Whiskered Tern · Whiskered Tern vs White-winged Tern · Black-fronted Tern vs Whiskered Tern
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