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Hi Ken, Dion and
Birding-Aussers,
Antarctic Tern is a
regular winter visitor to my part of the world and is fairly different to the
other "comic" terns viz. Common and Arctic Terns. Antarctic Tern is a "dumpy"
bird with a relatively short bill and quite short legs as well. Common Tern is
easily separated by its longer bill and much longer legs showing a reasonable
amount of the tibia. Arctic Tern also shows a short bill and short legs, but is
a far slimmer bird.
Antarctic Tern shows
an obvious white rump as well as a fairly distinctive white trailing edge to the
grey upperwings. There are a couple of photos of Antarctic Tern in non-breeding
plumage under the "pelagic birds" section of the "photographic gallery" on our
website if you are interested. This might give you a better feel for the "jizz"
of the bird, one of the more important features which can be used to very
quickly separate it from Common and Arctic Terns.
Hope this
helps.
Kind
Regards
Trevor
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Trevor Hardaker and
John Graham
ZEST for
BIRDS
Cape Town, South
Africa
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