6/13/2010

The Most Beautiful Birds in Flight

Surely there is nothing more beautiful than the sight of a tern in flight. My husband took this series of a Common Tern, or Sterna hirundo.

It seems to be impossible for a tern to be ungainly or awkward in the air.  They are especially lovely against a bright blue sky, like this one. 

These shots are so crisp and clear that you can see the glint of his eye!

Here you see the classic curve of a tern's wing in flight.  It may be difficulty to know exactly what species of tern you are seeing, but it is usually easy to recognize a flying tern by shape alone.

How beautiful, and how perfectly graceful, is a tern in flight!

2 comments:

  1. I definitely agree that terns are beautiful. I am interested to see that those photos are of a bird in breeding plumage. We see thousands (Yes, literally!) of Common Terns down here where I live (in SE Queensland Australia) during our summer season but by then they are in non-breeding plumage. Just before they fly north again they start to change into breeding plumage.

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  2. Excellent shots of the common tern!

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