Chlidonias

White-winged Black Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus)

Waikanae, May 2022; amongst White-fronted Terns (Sterna striata).
Wow, is that a juvenile or are white-fronted terns just really big(or a white-winged black terns just small)
 
It's either a non-breeding adult or a juvenile, but that's just the size WWBTs are. White-fronted Terns are a medium-sized tern, quite a bit smaller than Red-billed Gulls (for example); for Europeans, WFTs are just a tad bigger than Common and Arctic Terns.

If you look at the other photos under NZ Wildlife, the Caspian Terns are gigantic (relatively speaking), WFTs medium-sized, WWBTs and Black-fronted Terns and Black Terns all similar in size to one another (although I think the Black Tern is smaller than the other two Chlidonias species pictured), and Little Terns are even smaller than those three. [Edit: I forgot about the Sooty Tern, which is a little bit bigger than the WFTs]

One of the photos shows the Black Tern alongside WFTs, and another shows the Little Tern alongside WTFs, Caspian Terns, and gulls.

Of the terns I have seen this year, only the Common Tern was not photographed (I only saw it once, and I didn't have my camera with me that time). There was an Arctic Tern around as well, but I haven't seen that one yet.
 

Media information

Category
New Zealand - Wildlife
Added by
Chlidonias
Date added
View count
360
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Image metadata

Device
Canon Canon EOS 1100D
Aperture
ƒ/7.1
Focal length
300.0 mm
Exposure time
1/400 second(s)
ISO
125
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
IMG_0075 (2).JPG
File size
450.5 KB
Date taken
Sun, 01 May 2022 11:55 AM
Dimensions
2307px x 1388px

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