apparent first Elegant Tern for Argentina

[JCL]

I have posted several photos of an apparent Elegant Tern - taken yesterday in Buenos Aires province, Argentina - on the ID discussion photo gallery. The nearest population is central Chile, so it would constitute an impressive record.

This is a potential first for Argentina, so it is important to eliminate other spp. Particularly with a taxon that has caused confusion when it has turned up as a vagrant.

To me, bill structure/shape/colour, extent of black crest and size rule out Royal and Cayenne, which are both regular/common here.

Any thoughts?

cheers

James

[AndyB]

Hi James, first congrats on the find. To me, it does indeed look like Elegant. I believe bill shape rules out Royal and white rump rules out a vagrant Lesser-crested. Unfortunately, I have no experience with Cayenne. It's hard to get a true sense of bill shape and color from the flying photos but the perched photos seem to show a longer, more drooping, two-toned bill than the nearby Sandwich Terns which all fits for Elegant.

To see James' photos on the ID Discussion Gallery click here (http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery28)

I'd be interested to see what other opinions are. Well done and thanks for posting those photos.

[Josh Jones]

Looks good for Elegant to me!

[Alan Henry]

Hi James,

Great find it all looks good for Elegant Tern to me.

Spent hours watching them on La Serena beach in Chile a year ago and was amazed by the variation to the bill colour.

Has Mark Pearman seen it?

Cheers

Alan

[JCL]

Thanks all for comments. Alvaro Jaramillo and Robin Restall have agreed with the ID as Elegant. I thus put the news out on Sunday (yes, we have a grapevine here in Argentina). Mark Pearman twitched the bird yesterday, and found a total of four birds! Three were still there this morning - seen by other Arglisters.

Subsequently, a photo from Apr 07 has crawled out of the woodwork (Punta Rasa, 60km from the site of our records) which clearly depicts an Elegant, plus a photo of an orange-billed tern (harder to tell bill structure from a single photo, and some Cayennes here have brighter bills) down in Santa Cruz province, further south.

very interesting suite of records... where are they coming from? Central Chile or the US?

Alan - if you're reading this.... Mark tells me you had a sight record in the Falklands. Would you be able to send me the note you published/any supporting info. I'd like to refer to it in the note we'll publish idc. (lowen.jamesatgmail)

cheers

James

[Alan Henry]

Hi James,

So no luck with that email.

The only known record of Elegant Tern in the Falkland Islands comes from a sighting by Mike Bingham on 9th August 1996.

He was the only observer and no photo's were taken.


Cheers

Alan