5271 x 4217 px | 44,6 x 35,7 cm | 17,6 x 14,1 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
13. Juni 2023
Ort:
Lassen County California, USA
Weitere Informationen:
I’ve long been fond of the Forster’s Terns that visit our region during late spring and summer. While they aren’t as vibrantly colored as many other birds, I think they have a rather sleek and graceful look about them. The northeastern part of California is one of their breeding grounds so they’re around several of our lakes during summer. The dark black cap and black tipped orange beak indicates this as a breeding adult. When not in breeding season the black cap will fade a great deal and the beak will be all black (I only know this from pictures on the All About Birds website as I’ve never seen one in its non-breeding state). I saw this one and what I assume to be its mate at Blue Lake in Lassen County California on a mid-June day. The other bird was sitting on an adjacent fallen log. As far as I know, there is no way to determine gender by outward appearance of these birds. That said, I speculate that this is the male as “he” got very vocal in “his” displeasure at my approach and put on quite the display of raising his wings, presumably to look bigger (unfortunately, I couldn’t get my camera aimed quickly enough to capture that display). Once I stopped at the water’s edge “he” apparently figured out I wasn’t a threat and went back to vigorously preening. Close observers of this image on larger screens will notice a dragon fly hanging out to the left of this bird. Clearly, the dragonfly got the memo that this species of tern are fish eaters (although some others do add insects to their diet).
