Caspian Tern

A fine looking bird I am sure you'll agree. Fish tremble at the sight of that huge blood red bill! This particular bird was showing off in the bay viewable from Sand Beach Tower in the Apalachicola River Wildlife Environmental Area. A great birding site that's in the middle of nowhere. Bald Eagles, large rafts of scaup and Bufflehead, Forster's Terns, Common Loon and thousands of American Robins (feasting on Yaupon berries) were in evidence during our visit yesterday. 

A good view of the head plumage in this shot. Caspian Terns can be told from our other large tern species, the Royal, from their very different head plumage pattern. During winter Royal Terns exhibit virtually no black speckling on their forehead and crown. The black feathers are typically towards the read and sides of the head. They kind of look like a mad bald professor! Caspian Terns do show black speckling across the whole head, which can be variable, but is more evenly distributed typically. They don't have that stark white bald patch like Royals exhibit.

Caspian Terns have more extensively black/gray coloration to their outer primaries on the underwing. The black coloration is more sharply defined on the underwing of a Royal and is typically restricted to the ends of the outer primary feathers.

Caspian Terns have a blood red bill with a subtle yellow and black tip. Royals have an orange bill, although in summer it can become more flame colored. Structurally there is no similarity between their bills; Caspians have a broad bill that comes to a more rounded tip (more gull like) and Royals have a narrow sharp pointed bill.

In North Florida you can find Caspian Terns inland much more frequently than Royals. The latter is actually quite rare inland and the majority of records occur during the hurricane season. Here in Leon County Royal Terns are rare. Caspians however do show up on or near our inland lakes, ponds and reservoirs. Most records involve singles or pairs. Groups larger than 1 or 2 are very rare inland in this part of the state. Royals are much more common along the coast than Caspians and you can often see both species together. In my experience Caspians are almost always recorded in groups no bigger than 3 or 4 whereas Royals can often be seen in quite large flocks. When observing the species side by side the size difference is very apparent. Caspians are a noticeably larger stockier bird than the Royal.

easily the most common bird in the national forest yesterday