Two friends of mine recently visited the shoreline at Cape Nanhui, a little south of Pudong International Airport, and have come up with a couple of queries.
The first is the tern inside the oval in the 1st image. The bird appears to have a straw-coloured bill, slightly oddly shaped with what could be a broken lower mandible. There also seems to be a slight crest to the rear of the crown. We're a bit stumped by this one, as it's about the same size and shape as the nearby Gull-billed Terns and has the same dark folded primaries, but I've never heard of a GBT with a straw/horn-coloured bill like this. It doesn't look like one of the Crested Terns, though.
Two days later another friend visited the same location and photographed a similar odd tern (2nd image). I'm wondering if it's the same individual.
The second query concerns the Plover in the 3rd image. Could it be White-faced? The 4th image shows a Plover which also has a large white area on the forehead but probably within limits?
The first is the tern inside the oval in the 1st image. The bird appears to have a straw-coloured bill, slightly oddly shaped with what could be a broken lower mandible. There also seems to be a slight crest to the rear of the crown. We're a bit stumped by this one, as it's about the same size and shape as the nearby Gull-billed Terns and has the same dark folded primaries, but I've never heard of a GBT with a straw/horn-coloured bill like this. It doesn't look like one of the Crested Terns, though.
Two days later another friend visited the same location and photographed a similar odd tern (2nd image). I'm wondering if it's the same individual.
The second query concerns the Plover in the 3rd image. Could it be White-faced? The 4th image shows a Plover which also has a large white area on the forehead but probably within limits?