Tern and Plover, Cape Nanhui, nr Shanghai, China (1 Viewer)

[andyb39]

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_FERN]

The terns are unusual but certainly gull-billed imho. i found this Macauley image which is vaguely similar:

ML483312901 - Gull-billed Tern - Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML483312901; © Lukasz Haluch; Podkarpackie, Poland

macaulaylibrary.org

 

[Bewick]

the black behind the eye of the plover on the third pics makes me think that its probably more likely a Kentish than a white faced. It could just be an issue with the image- do you have more pics that include that plover?

Edit- imo image four shows a sand plover.

 

[Butty]

1-2. The furthest-left terns in both photos also have some pale on the bill-base - and I'd take it that all are gull-billed tern, given (especially) bill-shape and leg-length, plus general similarity of all of them.

 

[andyb39]

the black behind the eye of the plover on the third pics makes me think that its probably more likely a Kentish than a white faced. It could just be an issue with the image- do you have more pics that include that plover?

Edit- imo image four shows a sand plover.

I'm afraid there isn't another image of the bird in the 3rd pic. There does appear to be a black mark behind the eye - this is limited or barely present in White-faced, so you could be right, but the image could have exaggerated the extent of it.

Yes, having looked again at the bird to the left in the 4th image, it looks like a Sand Plover.

 

[andyb39]

The terns are unusual but certainly gull-billed imho. i found this Macauley image which is vaguely similar:

ML483312901 - Gull-billed Tern - Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML483312901; © Lukasz Haluch; Podkarpackie, Poland

macaulaylibrary.org

I think that's a juvenile - they sometimes have a hint of reddish coloration at the base of the bill. I'd never seen one with a bill that was wholly yellowish. If the bill is deformed rather than broken, maybe that's the reason.