Greater Crested Tern in Djibouti (2 Viewers)

MacNara · Oct 17, 2018

Aladdin said:
Thank you MacNara

And I'm also an ignoramus as I'm all new to this birding and I have learned to ID some of the colourful birds. But the sea birds are very hard and I have only been looking at Gulls since the summer when I learned to see difference between Herring gull and the common gull and it started to get fun.

Welcome to the club! I only started birding less than fifteen years ago, when I was about 50. Looking at birds has given me so much pleasure that I wish I had started when I was a child. Part of the pleasure is the beauty of the birds themselves. Part is the exercise - although my camera is fairly expensive, I don't have a tripod or a really, really expensive lens as some of my friends do because I like to walk around and just look at whatever turns up. And another big part of the pleasure is the companionship - my Japanese wife, who occasionally comes out birding with me in Japan, is often astonished at the number of acquaintances I have in our local area when otherwise we are rather private people.

Gulls seem to get more difficult the more you get into them! For me, it is warblers that are a problem, even though we don't have so many in my area.

And I've had a lot of help from real experts on Bird Forum with birds from our trips to Africa and Australia. Indeed without BF, I might have given up sometimes, so the companionship on this forum is also an important part of birding for me.

Aladdin · Oct 18, 2018

MacNara said:
Welcome to the club! I only started birding less than fifteen years ago, when I was about 50. Looking at birds has given me so much pleasure that I wish I had started when I was a child. Part of the pleasure is the beauty of the birds themselves. Part is the exercise - although my camera is fairly expensive, I don't have a tripod or a really, really expensive lens as some of my friends do because I like to walk around and just look at whatever turns up. And another big part of the pleasure is the companionship - my Japanese wife, who occasionally comes out birding with me in Japan, is often astonished at the number of acquaintances I have in our local area when otherwise we are rather private people.

Gulls seem to get more difficult the more you get into them! For me, it is warblers that are a problem, even though we don't have so many in my area.

And I've had a lot of help from real experts on Bird Forum with birds from our trips to Africa and Australia. Indeed without BF, I might have given up sometimes, so the companionship on this forum is also an important part of birding for me.

Hello McNara

Japan, I have been there quite some times, but just for drinking and party. 50+++ and we have different interests, and the only thing getting easier by the years is to get out of bed. So up at 4 it is, tea and out to look for birds.

30 years ago you could not get me out of bed at 4, even at gun point.

I know nothing about the birds and I like evey day as I learn something new. My friend told me that when he was a wee lad he knew all the heros by name in all the comic books, he knew all the birds in UK and most of them by the sound as well.

He became a teenager and it was only two interests, girls and beer. And now it is back to the birds.

Im planning for a Korean and Japan birding trip for the spring if Im home, it is just a few hours flight and I like Japan so Im looking forward to this

EDIT: 2 days of raining now and strong winds and I have got a few very nice pictures of the White-eyed Gull coming down in full speed making a U-turn and then they stand almost still going back against the wing and I have them at eye level 4 meters away from me. Overcast, good light for the bird pictures and it will be perfect for the Tern, but I only seen it quite far away recognising the bird by its booomerang shaped wings.

But my camera is stand+by and I hope to get a picture in good light se we can se ethe colour of the bill

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

sicklebill · Oct 18, 2018

MacNara said:
Well, for my own part, I thought the colour of the bill of your bird in post #1 was orangey and closer to Lesser Crested, as Sicklebill suggested.

Of course, arguments from authority are not conclusive, since even the greatest experts can be wrong sometimes, but Sicklebill under his actual name is one of the world's leading birders, possibly the most distinguished birder who generously contributes his knowledge on Bird Forum even to ignoramuses like me, so I would give his opinion on a bird he sees regularly a lot of weight; and he thinks it's Lesser, and that your third picture in post #10 is fine for Lesser, not Greater, not just on bill colour but on overall colour and patterning.

Gosh, how kind, but it's nice to lurk anonymously, and I make no claims to infallibility, I just share my experience in cases where i might know something. Birdforum is a great place to learn things, sometimes indeed how not to do it!
Nutcracker made a good point about the races of Greater Crested Tern, which is why i hedged slightly initially,, but I'll stay with my view as Lesser Crested until proven otherwise.

Aladdin · Oct 19, 2018

Yellow-orange, not yellow-green

sicklebill said:
Gosh, how kind, but it's nice to lurk anonymously, and I make no claims to infallibility, I just share my experience in cases where i might know something. Birdforum is a great place to learn things, sometimes indeed how not to do it!
Nutcracker made a good point about the races of Greater Crested Tern, which is why i hedged slightly initially,, but I'll stay with my view as Lesser Crested until proven otherwise.

After two days of rain and overcast, perfect weather for the pictures of the bill. Not good for any quality pictures as I had to use a crazy ISO speed as it was gloom and grey for long as I could see in the drizzle. The Lesser Crested Tern is quite quick.

And I had to run around, as usually, I spotted the bird far away soar like a bird of prey in circles at high altitude only recognizing it from the boomerang shaped wings and the fork tail

Suddenly it came flying over the water surface and I ran, have to open two doors to get to the other side and the bird had passed. Making a u-turn and coming back on the other side and I ran over to get a few pictures again.

Another turn and I can also get a full front picture, but at a distance. Not good enough to make it to my list of observed birds but good enough to see that the bill is yellow-orange

No sunshine and I think we can agree on the colour, yellow orange as the Lesser and not the yellow-green as for the Greater

So Lesser and it will be a new bird for me, now I just need some good pictures to be able to put it on my list of observed birds.

Thank you all, I have learned to see the difference between two almost alike birds (alike for me), for sure a good day

Thanks again and happy birding
Aladdin

Aladdin · Oct 19, 2018

I don´t know what happened, usually able to attach 5 pictures

SteveMM · Oct 20, 2018

The bills of many of the Greater Crested Terns that winter here get confusingly orange-toned in winter. Shouldn't the bill of Lesser Crested Tern be more 'carrot-orange' than those in the OP? (Which, FWIW, I think are Greater.)

Steve

Aladdin · Oct 22, 2018

SteveMM said:
The bills of many of the Greater Crested Terns that winter here get confusingly orange-toned in winter. Shouldn't the bill of Lesser Crested Tern be more 'carrot-orange' than those in the OP? (Which, FWIW, I think are Greater.)

Steve

Cheers Steve

For me it is almost impossible to see the difference. But the Greater I Have seen on Bali and Fiji have the what I call the yellow-green colour. And I would like to call this orange yellow and as mentioned by some of the memebers, I think the bill colour change a little with subspeices and time of the year.

But as mentioned, the forehead is white and this should be the winter plumage for the Lesser. For me it is very hard to see the difference if the birds are not next to eachother

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

Aladdin · Oct 28, 2018

Sound recording

Dear members and bird watchers

This morning I managed to get a recording of the tern. I have uploaded it to xeno-canto:

https://www.xeno-canto.org/440409

I´m not very happy with the recording as the birds was kind of far away and strong wind. But I compare the sounds of the Lesser and Greater at xeno-canto this sounds like the Lesser. Anyone here have any ideas about the sound.

We can also hear the White-eyed gull in the recording

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

Tib78 · Nov 2, 2018

An interesting thread that nicely illustrates the ID problem caused by Greater and Lesser crested terns in non-breeding plumage when there is only one of the 2 species present. Of course when both sp are seen side by side, the ID is pretty straightforward.

There is, however, little doubt in my mind that most (if not all) birds posted by Aladdin are Greater crested terns. The only source of doubt comes from the pic in post #10.
Joe wrote down a good sum up of the visible features in post #14, and although he seemingly changed his mind later along the thread, I wholeheartedly agree with his original analysis and would add one more point: note how on the second bird in post #1 there is still a "ghost" of the breeding plumage on the head, and the black speckling stops exactly where you would expect the blackhood should stop as well on a breeding GCT, leaving a white separation between the cap and the bill base. The darker plumage, nape pattern and yellow bill colour all point to GCT in my view. I personally find the bill shape to be of little help when dealing with lone birds...
I have attached pictures showing both sp side by side and also some GCT in flight, all taken in may in Tanzania. Note how the left GCT in the pics with the bird standing appears to show a slight orange cast to the bill base...(it's likely to be the same individual shown in flight in the last pic).
Note also how dark GCT may look depending on the lighting conditions and camera settings!
Hope this helps.

lou salomon · Nov 2, 2018

beautiful pics, thibaut. which illustrate how similar they can look. in the field greater looked much larger and darker to me.

Aladdin · Nov 3, 2018

Tib78 said:
An interesting thread that nicely illustrates the ID problem caused by Greater and Lesser crested terns in non-breeding plumage when there is only one of the 2 species present. Of course when both sp are seen side by side, the ID is pretty straightforward.

There is, however, little doubt in my mind that most (if not all) birds posted by Aladdin are Greater crested terns. The only source of doubt comes from the pic in post #10.
Joe wrote down a good sum up of the visible features in post #14, and although he seemingly changed his mind later along the thread, I wholeheartedly agree with his original analysis and would add one more point: note how on the second bird in post #1 there is still a "ghost" of the breeding plumage on the head, and the black speckling stops exactly where you would expect the blackhood should stop as well on a breeding GCT, leaving a white separation between the cap and the bill base. The darker plumage, nape pattern and yellow bill colour all point to GCT in my view. I personally find the bill shape to be of little help when dealing with lone birds...
I have attached pictures showing both sp side by side and also some GCT in flight, all taken in may in Tanzania. Note how the left GCT in the pics with the bird standing appears to show a slight orange cast to the bill base...(it's likely to be the same individual shown in flight in the last pic).
Note also how dark GCT may look depending on the lighting conditions and camera settings!
Hope this helps.

Thanks

Yes, great pictures and the difference is quite clear in the size. At least I have a hard time seeing the difference on the colour of the bill, especially from a picture with light conditions etc.

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

Greater Crested Tern in Djibouti (2 Viewers)

More options

MacNara

Well-known member

Aladdin

Well-known member

sicklebill

well-known Cretaceous relic

Aladdin

Well-known member

Attachments

Aladdin

Well-known member

Attachments

SteveMM

Well-known member

Attachments

Aladdin

Well-known member

Aladdin

Well-known member

Attachments

Tib78

Well-known member

Attachments

lou salomon

the birdonist

Aladdin

Well-known member

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread