2012 October Sandwich Tern Bird-of-the-Month

(See member picture gallery below). October’s bird of the month, Sterna sandvicensis, SANDWICH TERN, is a medium-sized tern with a yellow-tipped black bill. It occurs more regularly on the west coast of Florida than our Atlantic beaches. There is, though, a Caribbean and South American (Atlantic) subspecies, the Cayenne Tern, that has an all-yellow bill. The Royal Tern is larger and stockier, with an orange bill, the Elegant Tern is similar in shape but with an orange-red bill, and the more inland-occurring Gull-billed Tern is stockier and with a heavy all-black bill that (surprise!) looks more like a gull’s bill than a typical tern’s bill. The name comes from Sandwich, in Kent, England, whence the first specimen was taken.