What bird is that?

Common tern, photographed at Lake Bellevue, Alberta.

Have you ever looked at a bird and wondered what kind it was?  Not knowing off hand what species it was, you might try to look it up in a bird book.  With almost a thousand possibilities, you will likely feel overwhelmed with choices.  It would certainly help to have some rudimentary avian taxonomic skills, such as knowing the difference between a hawk and a hummingbird.  Even with that, there may be over a hundred species for some bird body types.

A great website to visit is whatbird, a free, user friendly resource which allows you to input observations to cull the implausible and isolate the probable.  Typically selecting two or three options will reduce the number of choices to only a few.  In the image above, the inset shows the resulting query using three identifiers.  Of the options given, the Arctic tern (1), the Caspian tern (5), the Common tern (6) and Forester's tern (7) are the likely candidates just from a visual inspection.

The next step then is to eliminate ones that don't quite match the actual bird.  It helps to have as much information as possible, which is why I like to have a picture.  This is where you start using the limited choices to make a determination.  Clicking on each of the viable possibilities brings up a new tab with specific information on that bird.  You can remove birds one at a time by observing specific details.

Notice the black tip at the end of the bird's red bill.  This removes the Arctic tern as a possibility because its bill is a single colour.  The red feet tells us it is not a Caspian tern, which has black feet.  This leaves both Forester's tern and the Common tern as likely candidates.  The black hood on Forester's tern is a little longer at the rear and it touches the beak at a slightly different angle.  The difference is subtle.  The distribution map shows that the Common tern inhabits a wider area than the Caspian tern does, although they both are present where the image was taken.

Based on the information available, I would say it is a Common tern.  I shot this image a couple of years ago and do not remember the behaviours associated with it at the time.  This would be useful in verifying the conclusion.

There is also an app for your phone or iOS device.  The app I-bird ultimate is $19.99 and the pro version is $14.99 at the time of this writing.  For android only the pro version is available at a price of $18.99.  All prices are in US dollars.  You can also get a free version with fewer features.

I rely on a number of sources when trying to identify a bird.  I have a number of bird books, I also use whatbird and will ask other knowledgeable types what their opinion is.  I often will read up on other facts about the critter as it quenches my curiosity even further.

If you are interested in learning how to photograph birds, consider getting a copy of my book, "Photography for Birders and other wildlife enthusiasts."

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