Cartoon drawings depicting all types of unusual terns are puns on common words and phrases as well as familiar quotations

This New Naturalist volume provides a much-anticipated overview of these fascinating birds – the first book on the natural history of British and Irish terns since 1934.

Follows the journey of a migrating Arctic tern, from egg to bird and all the way to Antarctica.

Covering 22 species found in the Western Palearctic and North America, this guide lists each species under the sections of: field identification; moult; description; geographical variation; measurements; and weight. It includes a quick reference section summarising key identification features. Terns are elegant sea and marshland birds that live throughout the world. In Europe and North America a total of twenty-three species is represented, all of which are dealt with in this book. The variations among the species and their subspecies is great, and identification is therefore often highly problematic. Terns are long-distance migrants and can be seen regularly on passage between their normal breeding and wintering areas. Klaus Malling Olsen devotes much attention to the immature and winter plumages of these birds, which are generally inadequately described in most other field guides, while he also deals in depth with the problems of moult, species, and subspecies. The text covers the bird in the field, moult, and the bird in the hand. The author concludes each species account with extensive data on measurements and weight and an itemized key to identification. The text is accompanied by over forty colour plates, which have been specially prepared for this guide by the talented Swedish bird artist Hans Larsson. The book is completed with a forty-eight-page representative photographic section.

A full-color photographic guide to these captivating and challenging birds This is the essential identification guide to the terns, noddies, and skimmers of North America. Covering every species and featuring hundreds of high-quality color images, this book is the ideal companion for anyone interested in this charismatic but sometimes challenging group of seabirds. Detailed species accounts describe the size of each bird as it appears in the field along with structure, behavior, flight style, vocalizations, subspecies, and North American and worldwide ranges. An incisive introduction lays out a remarkably simple approach to identification that focuses on key elements and addresses how to avoid getting bogged down in the variability of appearance. This state-of-the-art guide also provides additional in-depth coverage of the two most challenging groups of terns, Sterna terns and crested terns, aiding field identification while also highlighting the beauty and elegance of these marvelous seabirds. Features more than 325 stunning color photos, with side-by-side comparisons of similar species throughout Includes detailed captions for each image that describe age and key identification traits Covers 19 species found in North America, including the most frequent vagrants Presents a unique, simplified approach to field identification Explains the fundamentals of molts, plumages, and hybridization Provides in-depth coverage of Sterna terns and crested terns