Appearance:

Medium sized diving duck. Male with rufous brown head and pale grey body. Female indistinctly coloured in grey and brown, with diffuse head markings. Easiest identified by fairly distinct head profile; long bill continuous with sloping forehead, ending in peaked crown (both sexes). Bulky body and short neck. Both sexes with long, pale grey wing-bars. Juveniles like female, except body warmer brown.

Sound:

Female: a coarse "ahrrrrrrr-ahrrrrr-ahrrrr" with a vibrating quality. Male courting call a pleasant, drawn out, nasal whistle "tweeeeep", rising in pitch, often followed by a falling "puuuh" (e.g a long disyllabic tweeepuuuuuuh). Also a sharper "ki-ki-ki" or "ki-ki-kiko".

Display call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Jarek Matusiak, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

White forehead with white wedge above eye in all plumages. Legs, and most of bill yellow in adult breeding plumage. Very small and longwinged tern. Only 2/3 of size of Common Tern. Head and bill proportionally longer than Chlidonias species and congeners, while tail is shorter. Back paler grey and belly whiter. First primaries form a dark front edge to wing. In winter the bill darkens, legs turn a dirty yellow and the white forehead expands. Juvenile resembles adult winter, but has yellowish bill base and scale patterned back. Flight fluttering with rapid wing-beats, which together with size, is usually sufficient to determine the species.

Sound:

Fairly distinct voice. Contact call a sharp "kitt", often combined to form undulating, rolling series. Not as sharp and penetrating as Common- and Arctic Tern.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-photo:Lars Buckx, Licence,Link.