Bird photos - Mexico - Jesper Bay Jacobsen

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Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) ebird/Clements (2019)
	676 (1 photos) Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) monotypic Gulls, Terns and Skimmers (Laridae) El Tortugario - Estero Palo Verde, Cuyutl, Colima (Col), Mexico 2012-05-12 Adult. Compared to Royal Tern the bill is thinner, longer and bending at the tip. The color is carrot colored with brighter tip. Rare along the coast at this time of year compared to Royal Tern.
	2203 (1 photos) Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) monotypic Gulls, Terns and Skimmers (Laridae) Pen, Colima (Col), Mexico 2013-12-28 A larger flock frequently comes in to forage at the corner of the beach next to the peninsula, just outside the golf course.
	2204 (1 photos) Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) monotypic Gulls, Terns and Skimmers (Laridae) Pen, Colima (Col), Mexico 2013-12-28 2cy bird with brownish smaller coverts, dark secondary subterminal band and dark in the tail. Long slender carrot colored bill, though down-toned a bit by the front view angle.
	2205 (1 photos) Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) monotypic Gulls, Terns and Skimmers (Laridae) Pen, Colima (Col), Mexico 2013-12-28 2cy bird. Other than 2204. Orange colored slender bill. Dark in tail indicates young bird. Limited white front compared to Royal Tern.
	2206 (1 photos) Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) monotypic Gulls, Terns and Skimmers (Laridae) Pen, Colima (Col), Mexico 2014-02-08 Adult. Mostly a documentation photo, but the elongated slender shape and the long thin bill are characteristic compared to Royal Tern.
	2207 (2 photos) Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) monotypic Gulls, Terns and Skimmers (Laridae) Pen, Colima (Col), Mexico 2014-02-08 Had about 100 birds this day. They come in to forage in the corner of the beach outside the golf course, but these were roosting in front of Las Hadas. Several flew to and from over the peninsula. Compare with the larger Royal Tern on the right side of the photo. Because of the angle the size difference is exaggerated. It is normally more moderate.
	2554 (17 photos) Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) monotypic Gulls, Terns and Skimmers (Laridae) Estero Maipo, Región Valparaíso (V), Chile 2018-01-14 Probably an adult judging from the photos of the bird in flight - both tail and coverts look completely white. My first thought about this bird was that it had to be a hybrid with Sandwich Tern [Cayenne/Cabot's] as the other parent because of the aberrant yellow bill with dark parts. This article from Mexico show birds with similar bills (VELARDE, E. & ROJO, P. 2012. Presumed Hybrid Elegant × Cabot’s Terns Thalasseus elegans × T. acuflavida on Isla Rasa, Gulf of California, Mexico. Marine Ornithology 40: 25–29.), which is why I assumed so. However, further studies online and in literature has not been able to confirm that hybrid birds can look this way. As a matter of fact I'm not able to find any photos of hybrids after the pullus stadium. Scrolling through my own unpublished photos I managed to find a bird from Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, Mexico that also shows a bill with dark parts, though less than the present bird. Apart from the bill both these birds look very similar to the other Elegant Terns they associated with, which makes me conclude, for the time being, that this type of bill merely is an aberrant and unusual character. Aberrant