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Identification Tips:

Length: 18 inches Wingspan: 43 inches
Sexes similar
Dives into water for prey
Large tern with fairly thick orange bill
Fairly long, deeply forked tail
Spiky crest at the rear of the head
Pale underwing with dark tips to outer primaries
Takes three years to reach full adult plumage

When identifying terns, it is safest to use a combination of field marks instead of relying on a single characteristic. Elegant Terns are slightly smaller and slenderer, with more slender, drooping bills and, when not in alternate plumage, lack a pale eyering in the dark mask. The Caspian can be separated from the Royal by its thicker, reddish bill, dark wedge on the outer portion of the underwing, its more shallowly-forked tail and its tendency to have an almost complete cap in basic and immature plumages. The smaller Sterna terns have slimmer, black or black-tipped bills, slimmer bodies and wings and a much more deeply-forked tail.

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About the ugly, distracting watermark: I truly do apologize that it is necessary to place this on the images. I hate to disfigure them with watermarks or my name, etc. However, after dozens of episodes of finding my images used without payment (and often without even any credit) on websites across the globe (from Japan to Finland to Italy), as well as numerous domestic infringements, I've found it easier to be proactive in protecting my work rather than spend dozens of hours trying to track down compensation from the image thief. Getting payment from domestic image thieves is not too hard, but it is very difficult to deal with international misappropriation. That is why most of the thumbs on this site cannot be enlarged and there is protective code to stop right-clicks. I wish it wasn't necessary... but unfortunately, it is. Thanks for understanding.