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Aleutian Tern in New South Wales (1 Viewer)

sicklebill

well-known Cretaceous relic
Australia
13 at Old Bar near Taree yesterday, in non-breeding plumage which is very little known. First record fro Australia apart from one seen at the same spot last year and as yet unsubmitted. I attach a few pix, and one with what I think is a White-fronted Tern in front of 3 Aleutians.
Thoughts on the White-fronted appreciated as it's a late sighting here
 

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Hi Notcracker,
That's a good point, but I see some pix of winter plumage Common Terns with dark bars, not labelled as first winter, maybe one of the gull and tern experts can help here (?Lou). I suspect some of the Aleutians are first winter as they had the dark bars on the carpals and a rather mottled mantle, but others did not. Most were in heavy primary moult and looked quite ragged. It would be useful to know, thanks
 
Pretty sure the dark bar can still be present in 2 year old terns (Common at least), so you could be dealing with 1st and 2nd winter birds (that's why I just used non-committal 'immature' above!); unfortunately, I've no idea if winter adult terns can also show it, as that's a plumage I never see up here . . .
 
Although distinctive enough when you focus on them, they could easily get missed so I wonder whether now that they're 'on the radar' in Oz there will be an increase in reports ....
 
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