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Little or Saunder's Tern: SW India (1 Viewer)

Dear all,
A friend of mine photographed these Terns from the coast of Kerala,SW India - admittedly this is not the best plumage to tell apart Little & Saunder's Tern. Till now, whatever 'little' Terns photographed from Kerala coast in breeding plumage were Little Terns and the nearest photographs of Saunder's Terns have come from Gujarat (much further north). I was wondering if someone could check out these pictures and comment. Most hits on internet for this topic lands in birdforum.

Primaries are visible in most photographs, rump in a couple of pictures, I guess the birds are in transition to winter plumage which could be helpful (particularly face) though the beak & legs have already turned dark.

Dates & photographer details are here
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/keralabirder/message/8143

thanks in advance
Praveen
 

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This being my first post, I wonder if I did something by mistake due to which nobody has replied to it - i hope somebody here will point out if that be the case. Or are these pics not any good to separate these two terns ?.
Mine being the only post which got 0 replies among the several tens of recent posts in this forum - i am replying to myself to change that status :) - and bring this post back among the current topics so that somebody will hopefully take notice.

Praveen
 
No mistake Praveen, but these are hard to seperate, you just need to wait for someone with the right experience to come along and take a look. Welcome to the forum!
 
From my limited experience (and I'm at work so can't research further...), isn't the shape of the white forehead a strong pointer? From memory, doesn't adult Saunder's have a square ended forehead patch, whereas Little angles back over the eye? Features such as the rump and primaries are of limited use when dealing with the sinensis race of Little, especially in non-breeding plumage.
So, I'd say your photos were of Little Terns, perhaps to be most expected in Kerala.

Mark
 
Thanks Trtstan & njlarsen
&
Hi Mark,
Yes Little Tern is the 'more' expected one from Kerala. Looking at the facial pattern again & more pics in OBI, yes - it does look more like Little than Saunder's. Thanks for the helpful comments.
Praveen
 
Hi Painted Stork,

On East African coast, I often use the grey tail (above) and uppertail coverts, in opposition to white in Little Tern. On the first photo, light and shadow effect makes it unclear but I think I can see a tail much too white for Saunders'.
 
Hi Painted Stork,

On East African coast, I often use the grey tail (above) and uppertail coverts, in opposition to white in Little Tern. On the first photo, light and shadow effect makes it unclear but I think I can see a tail much too white for Saunders'.

I can't shed much light I'm afraid, except to confirm what Mark said earlier, that sinensis show a grey rump and tail concolorous with the back.
 
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