These terns are incredibly, magnificently, almost unbelievably acrobatic and graceful in flight.
1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 800
Canon 5DIII, Canon 200-400 L IS USM
I photographed these magnificent birds a couple of summers ago. They are only 24cm in length, which slightly larger than a Common Starling. They are magnificent flyers fast and nimble! I set my camera to 1/3200 of a second to capture these shots.
1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 800
Canon 5DIII, Canon 200-400 L IS USM
Whiskered Terns sometimes start showing their breeding plumage before they head back to the northern hemisphere.
1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 800
Canon 5DIII, Canon 200-400 L IS USM
They can be found across many part of Australia, including Victoria. They feed by hawking, skimming insects from the surface of the water, shallow diving and shallow plunge diving. They are awesome to watch.
1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 800
Canon 5DSR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT
And here’s a bonus gem, a magnificent, endangered, Southern Brown Bandicoot that I was thrilled to watch as it ran around Cranbourne Botanical Gardens last week. It came very close to me as I was lying on the ground to watch it, and I occasionally remembered to press the shutter button.
Happy birding, stay safe, Kim
~ Facebook page Kim Wormald – lirralirra
~ Facebook group Ethical Bird Photography
Both are such a delight to see in all their glory. Forgive the novice, Kim, but which area is their breeding plumage? To attract mates or to help with migration – perhaps the dusky underside?
I was going to describe the breeding plumage change but thought I’d try sharing this link instead, hopefully it will work, they share a beaut photograph. I’ve shared more images of the species before that show some of the different colours, you might like to search for them too. Oh my goodness Syndy, these are Whiskered Terns!
They are both truly magnificent – and thank you for remembering the FB holdouts.
No worries EC