South Isl, Cocos Isls IMG_9480 20190210 - breeding plumage. Note: always has a white supercilium, cf sterna, eg. Common Tern.
Notes: Small slender tern w. black cap & loral stripe
& white forehead. Its thin sharp bill is yellow w. a black tip; legs
yellow. A broad black strip on inner web of outermost primary of wing, fine
white edges to folded primaries. Non-breeding plumage: forehead is more extensively
white, bill is black, a dark carpal-bar; cf
Fairy Tern which always has some yellow in
bill. LT feeds by plunge- diving for fish, usually in saline environments.
Both sedentary and Asian summer migrants.
Range from Morcombe©
Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_4008 20210303 - non-breeding plumage. CLICK for one there in breeding plumage: 20231003
Barron River Mouth, Redden Isl., Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_0493 20191207 - breeding plumage on left, non-breeding on right. CLICK for one in moult (outer primaries being replaced): Green Island, Cairns, 20231109.
Mud Island, Port Phillip Bay, S Vic IMG_3782 20160402 - LT non-breeding plumage on right, Fairy Tern on left. The white-patch above the eye gives it its eyebrowed look in breeding.
Ricketts Point, Beaumaris, Melbourne, S Vic IMG_3231 20230707 - non-breeding. CLICK for this one with Crested Tern.
Elim Beach, CYP, FNE Qld IMG_4765 20171010 - LT non-breeding plumage x 2 w. Crested Tern in non-breeding plumage. CLICK for one in breeding plumage there.
Foreshore, Elim Beach, CYP, FNE Qld IMG_8403 20201005 - LT non-breeding on right; Caspian Tern centre and Pacific Golden Plover on left, both in breeding plumage.
Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_4270 20231003 - flying: breeding plumage. CLICK for another view.
Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_7091 20220205 - flying: an early stage of non-breeding plumage. CLICK for another in non-breeding plumage.
Barron River mouth, Redden Isl., Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_0526 20191207 - non-breeding plumage.
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Foreshore, Elim Beach, CYP, FNE Qld IMG_8407 20201005 - LT in foreground, Crested & Lesser Crested Terns bathing at back.
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Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_4796 20240215 - non-breeding plumage.