Well if you’re talking about birds there are a number of potential suspects. Arctic tern, common tern, Caspian tern, Bonaparte’s Gull, and Franklin’s Gulls are all similarly attired in black and white and red.
Welcome to this week’s Sunday edition.
Bonaparte’s and Franklin’s gulls both have a black head, white body, grey back and wings, and black wingtips. To differentiate between them all you need to do is check the beak and leg colours; Bonaparte’s gulls have black beaks and red-orange legs, Franklin’s gulls have reddish beaks and reddish-black legs. Franklin’s gulls also have a distinct white eye ring and white spots on their wingtips. Easy right?
Here are a couple of other interesting facts:
The Bonaparte’s Gull is the only gull species that regularly nests in trees.
The common name of the Bonaparte’s Gull honors Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a cousin of Napoleon Bonaparte who made important contributions to American ornithology while an active member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia during the 1820s.
The Franklin’s Gull is unique among gulls in having two complete molts each year rather than one.
Franklin’s gulls create a floating platform of vegetation in which they nest. This floating nest gradually sinks as the material below the water surface decays so it requires continual maintenance. Both parents add new nest material daily until one or two weeks before departing the colony. Older chicks also add nest material from the immediate vicinity of the nest.
The terns are a bit more complicated. Arctic terns and Common terns are nearly identical. They are about the same size, both have red beaks and legs, grey backs and wings and a black cap. The differences between the two are subtle but once you know what you are looking for it will become easier to tell them apart. Common terns have a black-tipped beak and wings where the arctic tern has no black in its wings and a solid red beak.
Caspian terns are similarly coloured to both Arctic and common terns however they are much larger and often have better hair. The Caspian Tern is the largest tern in the world. They have thick red bills and short black legs and the feathers of their black cap are often “spiky” like a bird mohawk.
The most fascinating thing I’ve learned is that the oldest recorded wild Caspian Tern was at least 29 years, 7 months old when it was found in Louisiana in 1989. It had been banded in Michigan in 1959.
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