Forster’s Tern

Hey guys welcome back. Sometimes when you see a word, you read it wrong. And then you keep reading it wrong until one day you notice it’s not spelled the way you’ve been reading it. At first you wonder if you’re seeing a typo, then you realize you were wrong the whole time! For a long time, I thought today’s bird was the Foresters Tern. It’s not, it’s the Forster’s Tern.

Very similar to the common tern, the Forster’s tends to make its way inland a bit more often. The two can be distinguished during breeding season in three main ways. One, the Forster’s has a longer tail than the common, two, the bill of the Forster’s is larger and more of an orange rather than reddish orange, and three the Forster’s has less black on the wings.

Like other terns, the Forster’s tern sticks to the water and dives for fish. It’s a pretty cool sight. They’ll often hover above the water for a bit, then dive head first and usually come up with a tasty treat. The first time I saw them was a mixed flock of Forster’s and common terns diving for fish, then being mobbed by laughing gulls trying to steal their catches! Sticking to the shore, next time we’ll look at the semipalmated sandpiper and discover just what the heck semipalmated means. See you then!