Whiskered Tern with prey at Kelly's

[Philip Veerman <>]

The species occurs in many parts of the world, other than Australia and clearly is very mobile within Australia. I have long thought that they are not an international migrant (at least between Aus & northern Hemisphere). One book I just look at says: “There is some evidence to suggest that many Whiskered Tern migrate to Indonesia & New Guinea to spend the winter.......” Which is not very convincing of regular long migrations. My book “Birds of East Asia” suggests that their migration from China is only fairly local and nowhere near as to come all the way to Australia.

 

Philip

 

From: Sicheng Wan [
Sent: Tuesday, 26 September, 2017 7:03 PM
To: Con Boekel
Cc: canberrabirds chatline
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Whiskered Tern with prey at Kelly's

 

When do these terns usually migrate to Australia? I am in China now, there are still a flock of whiskered terns flying over in Longpao wetland of Nanjing (eastern China). I will keep on observing them the following weeks to know when they migrate south this year.

A juvenile individual photographed at Longpao wetland.




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在2017年09月26日 16:45，m("boekel.com.au","con");">Con Boekel 写道：

Attached is an image of a tern taking a fish today. Size and shape of
prey suggest Gambusia sp.

regards

Con