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Tern in Aberdeen, Scotland (1 Viewer)

Andrew Whitehouse

Andrew Whitehouse

Professor of Listening
Supporter
Scotland
Anyone have any thoughts on this tern, photographed at Girdle Ness, Aberdeen today? It looks a bit 'interesting' to me but I'm not sure how far beyond 'interesting' it's possible to go.

I have other photos but they generally show the same features.
 

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All very well saying it looks interesting etc, but the interesting bit to me will be when someone has the balls to say what they think it is!
 
Steve said:
All very well saying it looks interesting etc, but the interesting bit to me will be when someone has the balls to say what they think it is!
Click to expand...

Yes, that would be good! I would go so far as to say this bird shows characteristics of 'Eastern Common Tern' subspecies longipennis. It may be that's as far as it's possible to go with it in terms of identification but I'm interested to know if it's possible to be sure it is one (or maybe that it definitely isn't one) from these photos.
 
Steve said:
All very well saying it looks interesting etc, but the interesting bit to me will be when someone has the balls to say what they think it is!
Click to expand...

Presumably they are thinking ‘longipennis’ Common Tern.

Which I believe might well be split from Common Tern. It does look good, though I’m not sure what BOURC would make of such a bird, there have been a few claims in recent years which haven’t gone too far in the process AFAIK

*must type faster*
 
Let me suggest Arctic. It is late in the season thus the bill might have turned black already. It looks a bit unusual with the black trailing egde to the outer upperwing but a quick google revealed that it occurs. I wonder if it is age or sex related? All primaries look to have the same colour to me which would be good for Arctic, no? What are the options?

Edit: thought of longipennis but excluded it because of the unicoloured primaries. Would expect more disctict darker outer primaries in longipennis
 
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CARERY said:
Let me suggest Arctic. It is late in the season thus the bill might have turned black already. It looks a bit unusual with the black trailing egde to the outer upperwing but a quick google revealed that it occurs. I wonder if it is age or sex related? All primaries look to have the same colour to me which would be good for Arctic, no? What are the options?

Edit: thought of longipennis but excluded it because of the unicoloured primaries. Would expect more disctict darker outer primaries in longipennis
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I presume this bird from Hong Kong is longipennis:
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=976&Bird_Image_ID=12101
Wing pattern looks somewhat similar to me, although it's taken at a different time of the year.
 
I'm note saying the OP has to be an Arctic just a suggestion to consider it. However, in my experience it is a big difference to look at Common Terns in spring or autumn concerning the darker outer primaries. Much harder to recognise the contrast in spring. What about the very narrow and sharply defined black trailing edge of the underwing? To me it looks better for Arctic. Moreover Common in autumn often shows a darker outermost primary from below. Your bird lacks that.
 
Thanks for the comments. The question of a 'black-billed' Arctic Tern is a good one and something I've considered too, given the 'Arctic-like' grey suffusion on the underparts. Obviously it would have to be an Arctic Tern that retains breeding plumage but has winter bare-part colouration. This may be possible at this time of year - I'm not sure. I've never seen one looking like that, but then adults have normally left by this time of the year. According to Olsen and Larsen Arctics don't moult into winter plumage until they reach their wintering areas, but it doesn't mention if there's any change in bare part colouration before then.

There are some things I don't think look quite right for Arctic. I don't think the tail streamers are long enough, though this could be affected by wear (and longipennis apparently shows slightly longer streamers than Western Common, though not as long as Arctic). The bill also seems a bit long and slim (maybe shorter than Western Common, but hard to judge in isolation) for Arctic. Also the underwing looks rather uniformly grey and lacks any obvious contrast between darker coverts and paler (translucent) flight feathers. This may be an effect of the light (a bit gloomy) though. If it is an Arctic Tern I think it's a bit anomalous in a few ways and the shape seems better for a Common. I'm also not sure if longipennis can potentially show a slightly different wing pattern to Western Common at this time of the year.
 
The jizz of this bird says Arctic to me, which can have dark bills (although black would be unusual). I'm not seeing Common Tern here (of any form)
 
Andrew, I photographed a rather late lingering Arctic Tern at St Andrews back in late October 2011 and the bill appeared almost completely black though this was dependent on the light hitting it, as it appeared to still be a shde of wine-y red along much of its length on some of the photos. Having said that, my ID of Arctic Tern was based mostly on the apparently very short legs and lack of knowledge of any other possibilities (beyond Common).
 

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Stonefaction said:
Andrew, I photographed a rather late lingering Arctic Tern at St Andrews back in late October 2011 and the bill appeared almost completely black though this was dependent on the light hitting it, as it appeared to still be a shde of wine-y red along much of its length on some of the photos. Having said that, my ID of Arctic Tern was based mostly on the apparently very short legs and lack of knowledge of any other possibilities (beyond Common).
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Thanks Barry - nice photos. Interesting to see that Arctic (which is what yours looks like to me) can have a black bill while retaining most of its breeding plumage. The bird from yesterday is darker underneath than yours and lacks any white coming through on the forecrown. The legs seem a little longer and are (I think) not so bright.

It's good to see photos of terns like this in transitional plumages. It's quite hard to find similar things online. We could definitely do with an online resource for tern ID, as it seems a bit of neglected area compared to e.g. gulls.
 
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