Cabot’s Tern
Thalasseus acuflavidus (Cabot, S, 1847) (0, 1)
Photo © By EyeLoveBirds from Vancouver, Canada - Sandwich Tern - Thalasseus sandvicensis, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83305554
STATUS
Coastal from Virginia (USA) to French Guiana and Argentina. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Split from Sandwich Tern in 2017 to become a full species and now found to be closest to Elegant Tern.
This lone record was ringed (NAW 110386842) as a chick on 25 June 1984 near Beaufort, North Carolina, USA, and initially reported by phone to the BTO as found dead near Hay-on-Wye, Powys, some time before Christmas 1984. Later investigation found that this bird was actually found dead by a Forestry Commission ranger at Newhouse Wood, Herefordshire, on 28 November 1984 and identified through its ring.
The thicker shorter bill and long greasy black nape feathers are starting points to identification.
BBRC RECORD
1). 1984 Herefordshire Newhouse Wood, Dorstone, found freshly dead, 8th November. Ringed as a pullus near Beaufort, North Carolina, USA, on 25th June 1984.
(C. J. Mead & R. Hudson, Ringing and Migration 7: 139-188; BOURC (1991), Ibis 133: 219).
