ML618243330
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Foraging with the flurry of 400+ Black Terns at the far end of the jetty. Flew almost directly overhead once. Very similar in size to the Black Terns, slightly larger. Cool, inky chocolate overall with heavily worn wing coverts bleached paler, creating a paler carpal bar. Snow white crown sharply demarcated at the nape, unlike the more evenly blended patterning of a Brown Noddy. Heavily worn and tattered retrices meant it lacked the typically distinctive spatulate Noddy shape. Flight similar to that of the Black Terns, boyouantly picking at the water's surface. Tended to stay lower to the water while feeding than the Black Terns. Fine bill twice the length of the bill a slightly droopy. Size and coloration help to eliminate Brown Noddy. I'm not familiar enough with the species to confidently identify it to ssp, but presumably from the Caribbean group (that annually show up in the Dry Tortugas as well). ~4th Texas record and the second "chaseable"
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 70D
- ISO
- 1250
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- Dimensions
- 2347 pixels x 1565 pixels
- Original file size
- 767.65 KB