Kelly Kozlowski, Inga Schmidt and I have been trying to turn our "white
forehead" tern into a Royal Tern for the last three days but are ready to
agree that it most probably a "white forehead" Caspian Tern.  No less than 7
field guides were consulted and about 500 digital pictures reviewed of the
terns at LaDue to arrive at this conclusion.  This by no means should
suggest that others should not keep looking for a Royal, but we are probably
going on to other birds for now (and  take it off my eBird list - DRAT!!).
I put a few new pictures from yesterday on my Flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/85567104@N05/.



This was a fun puzzle and would be nice to have a really unusual bird for
our Geauga (or Ohio) lists but it's more important to be accurate.  The
collaboration with birders on the listserv was very helpful and I thank all
those who took time to help solve the puzzle.



For those of you who love research here are some of the references that were
consulted and some of what they said that made a difference (books to ask
Santa to bring you):





Dunne describes Caspian's tail as "dented" while Royals are "deeply and
sharply forked,".  Peterson, too, in "Birds of Britain and Europe".



Kaufman, Sibley and Peterson describe the underside of wingtips on Royal as
"much paler".  All the birds I saw had darker wingtips on the underside.



Dunne compares Caspian's to Royals and says than standing together,
Caspian's "tower over" Royals because they have longer legs.  All the birds
in my pictures and those of others (Kelly Kozlowski) show birds of very
similar size.



Dunne also says that Royals never have a dark tip to the bill but Crossley
shows some dark at tips on some Royals.



Hans Larsen, et al, in "Terns of Europe and North America" says regarding ID
in the field:

The Royal Tern.....has a red bill and is a toned down smaller slimmer and
pale-winged version of the Caspian Tern.......compared w/ Caspian. it is
slimmer & obviously more lightweight, w/ narrower wings, longer tail and
more slender, orange bill.  An important point is that the underside of the
primaries is white w/ black trailing edge.



Try this link for "Terns of Europe and North America"
http://books.google.com/books?id=hi6h6U6-0ZcC
<http://books.google.com/books?id=hi6h6U6-0ZcC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=caspian+t
ern+winter+juvenile+plumage&source=bl&ots=8IeXa_8F2R&sig=k8uFvR2jt9sALAv1QLt
r1W4SoT8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sQkKVM3MG47eoATNjYLwCw&ved=0CEEQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=ca
spian%20tern%20winter%20juvenile%20plumage&f=false>
&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=caspian+tern+winter+juvenile+plumage&source=bl&ots=8IeX
a_8F2R&sig=k8uFvR2jt9sALAv1QLtr1W4SoT8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sQkKVM3MG47eoATNjYLwCw&
ved=0CEEQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=caspian%20tern%20winter%20juvenile%20plumage&f=f
alse



Matt Valencic

Geauga County (Team Geauga)


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