MD Osprey:
FYI. The message below is a cross-post from the
"Frontiers of Bird Identification" listserver (birdwg01).
Elegant Tern is on our Maryland "Next Species
List." There are Atlantic coast records including
one from Chinoteague, Virginia. Infomation on
other Atlantic records is here ...
http://www.geocities.com/steve_extra/elegant_main2.html
The primary confusion species is Royal Tern, but
the mostly southern hemisphere Lesser Crested
Tern would also have to be ruled out. (The
Cayenne Tern--a subspecies of the Sandwich Tern
is superficially similar except it has a yellow
bill rather than the orangish bills of the others.)
Here are a few identification-related links ...
http://www.sdnhm.org/research/birdatlas/focus/terns.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elegant_Tern
Photos of the Argentina birds are here ...
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=108111
Study up for this summer ...
Phil
>Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:00:17 -0800
>From: Alvaro Jaramillo <>
>Subject: [BIRDWG01] FW: [alertaves] Sterna
>elegans en Prov de Bs As: primero registro para Argentina
>To:
>
>Folks
>
> Not an id issue here, but it has a potential
> to be one. A few days ago Juan Mazar Barnett
> and James Lowen found an Elegant Tern in Buenos
> Aires province, Argentina (on the Atlantic).
> After this report a fellow sent a photo of
> another one he had photographed in Buenos Aires
> Province last April. Mark Pearman today went to
> twitch the Elegant (these are the first records
> for Argentina) and found 4!!! At the same site.
> So we suddenly have a “bunch” of Elegant Terns
> at the same site on the Atlantic, and very soon
> these birds are going to go north. I would look
> hard in concentrations of terns this summer for
> Elegant type birds in the Eastern US…or even Europe.
> Thought many of you would find this of interest.
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Phil Davis Davidsonville, Maryland USA
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