{"id":1509,"date":"2016-08-12T17:43:23","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T17:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdingthestrait.com\/?p=1509"},"modified":"2024-03-26T12:52:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T12:52:41","slug":"elegant-tern-at-the-bay-of-cadiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdingthestrait.com\/blog\/elegant-tern-at-the-bay-of-cadiz\/","title":{"rendered":"Elegant Tern at the Bay of Cadiz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"max-width: 600px;\" src=\"https:\/\/birdingthestrait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/01\/28860411741_4058151c2b_b.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>We photographed this tern in an industrial salt pan of the Bay of C\u00e1diz in August 2012. Even though its general aspect matches that of an Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) from America, the identification of this and several other \u201corange-billed\u201d terns recorded in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France has been a mystery over the years. The extreme rarity of the Elegant Tern in Europe, the existence of similar species such as the Lesser-crested Tern and the American and African subspecies of the Royal Tern, together with proven and suspected cases of hybridization have all contributed to an interesting debate.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, some of these birds, including the one in the picture, were sampled for genetic analysis. The long-awaited results of the genetic analysis using state-of-the art procedures (multilocus instead of the traditional single-locus barcoding) have been just published in the Journal of Ornithology. Accordingly, this tern and two more out of the four sampled individuals are pure Elegant Terns, unequivocally. This way, the occurrence and reproduction of Elegant Terns in Europe has been finally confirmed!<\/p>\n<p>We recommend <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdguides.com\/webzine\/article.asp?a=5856\">the article on the matter<\/a> published at Birdguides web where the whole issue has been comprehensively reviewed, including an excellent selection of pictures of the studied individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, on the second of August 2016 this tern (which lost its yellow ring in 2012) and a food-begging juvenile have been recorded again in the same area of the Bay of C\u00e1diz by Rafa Garc\u00eda Costales.\u00a0This way, the coast of C\u00e1diz stands out as an unique area to observe three species of \u201cyellow\/orange-billed\u201d terns, namely: Elegant Tern, Royal Tern and Lesser-crested Tern, and the eventual presence of hybrids of different origin should not be overlooked!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1525\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1525\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1525\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/STESP06\u00a9\u00a9_N.jpg\" alt=\"The same Elegant Tern, which lost its color ring in 2012, with a food-begging juvenile, as seen in the Bay of Cadiz on the 2nd of August 2016 by Rafa Garcia Costales. This individual was first ringed at the Odiel Marshes, in Huelva (Andalusia) in August 2002 and has been recorded in Cadiz in most years ever since.\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1525\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The same Elegant Tern, which lost its color ring in 2012, with a food-begging juvenile, as seen in the Bay of Cadiz on the 2nd of August 2016 by Rafa Garcia Costales. This individual was first ringed at the Odiel Marshes, in Huelva (Andalusia) in August 2002 and has been recorded in Cadiz in most years ever since.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>We thank our friend Rafa Garc\u00eda Costales for his help to observe and photograph this tern and his dedication on the study of terns in C\u00e1diz.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1512\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1512\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1512 size-full\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/MG_7071.jpg\" alt=\"African Royal Tern (ssp. albidorsalis) in the Bay of Dakhla, Atlantic Sahara. January 2016. There is an increasing number of records of this species in the Strait of Gibraltar and its presence might have been partially overlooked.\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1512\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">African Royal Tern (ssp. albididorsalis) in the Bay of Dakhla, Atlantic Sahara. January 2016. There is an increasing number of records of this species in the Strait of Gibraltar and its presence might have been partially overlooked.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1513\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1513\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1513 size-full\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_6614_N.jpg\" alt=\"American Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus maximus) in Belize. The phenotypic differences between this taxa and its african counterpart have not been studied in detail yet.\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1513\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">American Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus maximus) in Belize. The phenotypic differences between this taxa and its African counterpart have not been studied in detail yet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1514\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1514\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1514 size-full\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/MG_3771_N.jpg\" alt=\"Lesser crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis) in Los Lances. The Strait of Gibraltar holds the bulk of the records of this African species in Europe. This particular individual was ringed in Libia.\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1514\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lesser crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis) in Los Lances. The Strait of Gibraltar holds the bulk of the records of this African species in Europe. This particular individual was ringed in Libia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We photographed this tern in an industrial salt pan of the Bay of C\u00e1diz in August 2012. Even though its general aspect matches that of an Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) from America, the identification of this and several other \u201corange-billed\u201d terns recorded in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France has been a mystery over the years. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Elegant Tern at the Bay of Cadiz - Birding the Strait<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/birdingthestrait.com\/blog\/elegant-tern-at-the-bay-of-cadiz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elegant Tern at the Bay of Cadiz - Birding the Strait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We photographed this tern in an industrial salt pan of the Bay of C\u00e1diz in August 2012. Even though its general aspect matches that of an Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) from America, the identification of this and several other \u201corange-billed\u201d terns recorded in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France has been a mystery over the years. 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