Mystery Bird: Sooty Tern, Onychoprion (Sterna) fuscata

grrlscientist — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:59:14 +0000

tags: Wideawake, Wideawake Tern, Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscata, Sterna fuscata, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

~~[Mystery bird]~~ Sooty Tern, also known as the Wideawake Tern or simply as the Wideawake, Onychoprion (Sterna) fuscata, photographed out of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Paul Sweet, 4 August 2007 [larger view].

NOTE: Unless you are a beginning bird watcher, PLEASE wait 24 hours before identifying this bird. (Intermediate-expert birders are encouraged to use puns, anagrams, poetry references or citations, Monty Python quotes or anything else that tickles your fancy to indicate you've identified this species during the first 24 hours after the image pops up. Thank you.) Everyone -- even beginning birders! -- PLEASE name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

Review all mystery birds to date.

grrlscientist Mon, 03/22/2010 - 04:59

The tail stands out to me. I thought I'd try to be all witty and play the word games, so I looked at the species name, and it's like every bird with a forked tail gets the same one (and a centipede, too). (Is there a term for the second part of the species name, the one that specifies the species within the genus?)

I'm trying to figure out the root: scissor for the first part? Is the second part related to "caudal" as in away from the head or toward the tail?

I came up empty on the word play. Lear calls. :)

the "species name" is the second part of the scientific name, also referred to as the "specific name." (the first "genus name" is also known as the "generic name").

of course, i might have misunderstood what you are asking to know .. .. ..

I've seen the term specific epithet used, as well.

Well, it's not a Bushtit (*sniff*). Poor Bushtits; no one gives them any respect.

If it were my turn, I would guess with unbridled enthusiasm.

Thanks, GrrlScientist and psweet, that's exactly what I was looking for!

john: friday past, as i was walking through a gorgeous and newly springing spring here in germany, i was thinking about how much i miss bushtits. in seattle, i had my own little flock that arrived, rain or shine, winter or spring, at my birdfeeders so consistently that i could almost set my clock by their arrival. i especially loved watching the newly fledged babies at my feeders. your comment only serves to remind me that no one seems to photograph these cute little guys, either.

but the brown centipede, Lithobius forficatus, is confined to Europe... of the 467 species of birds recorded for North Carolina, I think there is only one accipiter and one tyrant...

For avoiding spoilers, you might want to consider using ROT13. (That is, swapping the A-M and N-Z ranges of the alphabet. Doing that a second time decodes the text.) This can be encoded/decoded easily with the Leetkey extension to Firefox, or with the site www.rot13.com.

Just wait Grrl, the antics of Blue and Great Tits will make up for the lack of Bushtits, if you can find some local feeders.
I can't think of any obscure clues for this, except for dirty ones, so I'll have to leave it to David.

Accipiter or accipitrid?

Actually, not being able to see the photos every day is getting to be a drag, and since there is some "debate" over whether I should or should not be oblique, or wander into divagated discussion, I think I'll take a break...

A scorpion. Because it has some pointy things that look like they'd hurt.

David - if you dare take a break, there will be attack parrots in your near future.

Grrl and i both enjoy the diversions: they're more fun than anything we talk about.

Oh dear, that was unwise. I see attack parrots in my future now.

david, i would be greatly saddened to not be able to read your comments (and emails) almost every morning when i climb out of bed and sort through my "pending" blog comments. when i do not have comments or emails from you, i worry that something bad has happened to you. if the mystery bird banter ceases, it's just me and that spammer from poland who can't spell, the woman-hater spammer who thinks i should be on my hands and knees in his kitchen (ahem), and the two spammers from the "my pEnis is biggr than urz" institute.

seriously: this fate is too horrible to contemplate! without my mystery birds peeps to read, all balance in my world has been lost! i might not get out of bed in the morning! then how would we all talk about birds and sibley and literature and the etymology of words and monty python and .. and .. i dunno. just stuff.

don't make this humble blogger cry. i know i don't comment publicly often enough, but i am nearly always here, behind the scenes, reading, and laughing at this wonderful community of fun and smart peeps who have magically assembled themselves around this mystery bird phenomenon. i am doing my best to keep you happy by finding yet more photographers' images to share with you guys (tomorrow's photographer has some images that will make you cry: i just got permission to use his work, and there's a lot to look at, all of it breathtaking).

Ha! And Grrl has just been moderated on her own blog. :-)

it's worse than that: my own blog has mysteriously decided that my comments qualify as "spam"!! where's the breathalyzer?? this'll learn me for "blogging" while under the influence.

I keep trying to make the hood on the head fit Dante's third volume, he said sternly, but I just can't. I don't know what it is beyond that. Hint a little broader for the simpleminded.

Paul, whatever the species, it's a beautiful shot. You got the curve of the wings perfect! What cameras and lens are you using?

Hey David, I sure hope it wasn't my question that offended you; it certainly wasn't meant as an assault. If it came off that way, you have my apologies.
Agreeing with the consensus that your absence here would seriously impoverish the conversation,
c

David, Even though I never get the film references, I've learned a lot from your helpful comments and suggestions.

Don't quit, please!

Apikoros -- thanks for the compliment. As far as the camera, it was a Kodak Z740 easyshare. Just a little point and shoot. (If you look at the large version, you can see the pixellation -- you really couldn't take it any farther.) And if Grrl doesn't mind a shameless, (totally unpaid) plug, this was on one of Brian Patteson's pelagic trips -- the way I see it, the quality of this photo is more an advert for him than for the camera.

apikoros, I'm not so sure that applying Prudence, Justice, Temperance, or Courage, (neither Faith, Hope, nor Charity) would be the appropriate stern response, but perhaps staying with a religious conviction and bound for Terra Australis, again, one might be closer to the "mark"

Carel, not at all- I'm not sure why you would feel that way and likewise hope my actions were not inferred as anything other than a biophiliac totally outraged at the recent calamitous decisions not reached in Doha (nothing for Atlantic bluefin, and now nothing for hammerheads or whitetips...)

Bob, I appreciate the support but I'm not so sure that attack parrots would be subtle enough to really be "sneaky-beaky" given past exploits "not by strength, by guile"...

Bardiac, the film meanderings are because of John- I admit nothing and deny everything, except that the downside of a passionate man is his frequent subsidence into moods...

Grrl, if you don't mind I would prefer this as a sabbatical, believing the world to be round and therefore intolerant of bridges burned behind one...

Hamlet 5.2.358

What you can make out of the forehead/loral stripe in the photo doesn't seem enough to rule out Bridled Tern.

Hi, Andrew, I've been checking on a few photos, and you may be right about being able to ID the bird. Of course, with the advantage of several more shots of it, I can be quite confident of the ID, but that's a different question.

Hypothetically, a Bridled Tern should have a narrower white stripe over the forehead, resulting in the black crown coming forwards in a point, rather than the triangle visible here. But, the photos I've been checking aren't as clear as I'd like to see. Similarly, the contrast between the wing linings and the primaries should be diagnostic, and I think it's visible here, but that could be argued. I'm not sure, but I think the extensive dark color on the tail is typical of Sooty, not Bridled, but again, with this shot the possibility of that being shadow might not be ruled out.