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:[log in to unmask] 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) ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]