Adult: Your first reaction when a Caspian Tern fills your binocular may be a gasp of wonder!

Big! Big all over: neck, body, head and bill. The heavy thick bill is blood red and may have a dark tip. It is easy to distinguish from the orange bill of the Royal Tern or the black-tipped red bill of the breeding Common Tern or the summer Forster’s black -tipped orange bill.

In flight you can identify the Caspian Tern by the dark patch of the underside of the primaries. Other field marks are the broad wings, low slow flight, the black cap - streaked with white in winter - and the partially forked tail Caspian never displays a white forehead as Royal does.

Breeding Plumage: The summer bird has a crested black cap.

Immature: Red legs, resembles winter adult but has a dark-tipped tail and darkish marks on wings.

Habitat: Open salt or fresh water. Coastal beaches and inland lakes and marshes. Dives underwater from flight after fish or harvests fish at the surface as it flies. Eats larger fish such as mullet and menhaden. Has no scruples about piracy; will snatch a free meal from other members of the community.

The Caspian Tern is a Florida resident. It nests April - August in small colonies, or singly, along the coasts and on inland lakes and rivers, in grass-lined depressions on the ground.

Text by Mary Jean Rogers, West Volusia Audubon.