BIRD ID

05-Nov-2008

I spotted some birds (about 8) with black body, red beak, grey tail, black cap and white a stripe across the eye.

We forwarded a photograph to Trevor Hardaker from www.zestforbirds.co.za to confirm the ID of the bird. His reply was

There is no doubt that it is in fact a Whiskered Tern, which is in full breeding plumage. The potential confusion candidate, White-cheeked Tern, has a deeply forked tail and not a squarish ended tail like the bird in the photo and is also not quite as dark on the underside as is the bird in the photo.