Lesser Crested Tern - Djibouti - Here we go again! (1 Viewer)

Dear members and bird watchers

The bird on the attached pictures, I have identified it as a Lesser Crested Tern.

Last picture and we can see my measurements of the bird. I used a ruler and I kept the ruler 15 cm away from the bird. I could have come all the way up to the bird but I didn´t wanted to disturb.

I guess the bird was sick or tired. I measured about 31 cm from the tip of the bill to the end of the bird.

The bird did not wanted to drink fresh water, I cut up a fish in small pieces for the bird. But maybe they only eat fishes living.

I thought that I could be sure that the previous crested terns I had seen , discussed at thread https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=368539 would be the GREATER as it was big and this bird is very small.

My identification source is not very good so I used birdforum OPUS and there I could see that the size is really not that big of a difference.

So, what do you think? Is this a Lesser Crested Tern?

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

If I saw this in Australia no question Lesser Crested, unsure about the vagaries of the Red Sea form of Greater Crested Tern however which seems to have somewhat different bill colour......

sicklebill said:

If I saw this in Australia no question Lesser Crested, unsure about the vagaries of the Red Sea form of Greater Crested Tern however which seems to have somewhat different bill colour......

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Thank you very much!!

Very appreciated and I go for lesser as well with the measurements. And at picture #2 it is orange in the middle of the bill

If you don´t mind I ask, how do you feed them? The bird look sick and I have put a small cut up fish for the bird to eat, but so far not eating

Any suggestions?

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

Aladdin said:

Thank you very much!!

Very appreciated and I go for lesser as well with the measurements. And at picture #2 it is orange in the middle of the bill

If you don´t mind I ask, how do you feed them? The bird look sick and I have put a small cut up fish for the bird to eat, but so far not eating

Any suggestions?

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

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Imagine a sick bird would not want to feed even if you put suitable food for it - maybe botulism or some other infection?

Think it would take more care and effort to look after it? (ie taken into care, else left to its own devices)

Aladdin said:

The bird look sick and I have put a small cut up fish for the bird to eat, but so far not eating

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That's a common pose for terns when they're resting, I don't think it means any problems in health :t:

Nutcracker said:

That's a common pose for terns when they're resting, I don't think it means any problems in health :t:

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Thank you Nutcracker!

I think it is pretty uncommon that, at least never happened to me, that I could measure the bird. But maybe the bird was very tired after a long flight because the bird looked really healthy

AND I HAVE REALLY GOOD NEWS! I was up to look after my new friend and he had moved 20 meters and he looked to be full of vim (Maybe my fish) and 5 minutes later I saw the bird taking off.

A little "wobbly" in the start but it looked good after a minute or two. The bird was hoovering next to me and then BOOM and it was gone. Now I don´t have to worry anymore.

Thanks a lot
Aladdin