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Do you know what bird this is?

British Birds - Petrels, Shearwaters and Terns

Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds. Shearwaters are extraordinarily long-lived. A bird breeding in Northern Ireland was ringed as an adult (at least 5 years old) in 1953. It was retrapped in 2003, at least 55 years old, the oldest known wild bird in the world. Apart from bathing, terns rarely swim, despite having webbed feet.

1 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of Dan Irizarry

European Storm-petrel

Great Shearwater

Sandwich Tern

Balearic Shearwater

Group: Shearwaters and Petrels
Binomial: Puffinus gravis
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Procellariidae
Status: Passage Migrant
It is one of only a few bird species to migrate from breeding grounds in the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere, the normal pattern being the other way round.
It readily follows fishing boats.

2 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/jmuchaxo/

Great Shearwater

European Storm-petrel

Balearic Shearwater

Sandwich Tern

Group: Shearwaters and Petrels
Binomial: Puffinus mauretanicus
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Procellariidae
Status: Passage Migrant
It is silent at sea, but at night the breeding colonies are alive with raucous cackling calls.
This species nests in burrows which are visited only at night to avoid predation by large gulls.

3 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of http://birdsofsanibel.free.fr/

Manx Shearwater

Little Tern

Common Tern

Sandwich Tern

Group: Terns
Binomial: Sterna sandvicensis
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Sternidae
Status: Breeding Summer Visitor
Feeds by plunge diving for fish, usually in marine environments, and the offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.
It has a population estimated at 460,000-500,000 individuals.

4 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of Toivo Toivanen & Tiina Toppila

Great Shearwater

Leach's Storm-petrel

Arctic Tern

Sandwich Tern

Group: Terns
Binomial: Sterna paradisaea
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Sternidae
Status: Breeding Summer Visitor
The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates along a winding route to the oceans around Antarctica and back, a round trip of about 70,900 km (c. 44,300 miles) each year.

5 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of 49828152@N00

Leach's Storm-petrel

Northern Fulmar

Little Tern

Arctic Tern

Group: Terns
Binomial: Sternula albifrons
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Sternidae
Status: Breeding Summer Visitor
This bird breeds on the coasts and inland waterways of temperate and tropical Europe and Asia.
It is strongly migratory, wintering in the subtropical and tropical oceans as far south as South Africa and Australia.

6 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of Joby Joseph

Manx Shearwater

Common Tern

Northern Fulmar

Leach's Storm-petrel

Group: Terns
Binomial: Sterna hirundo
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Sternidae
Status: Breeding Summer Visitor
These delightful silvery-grey and white birds have long tails which have earned them the nickname 'sea-swallow'.
They have a buoyant, graceful flight and frequently hover over water before plunging down for a fish.

7 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of http://www.fws.gov/

Sandwich Tern

Balearic Shearwater

Leach's Storm-petrel

Little Tern

Group: Storm Petrels
Binomial: Oceanodroma leucorhea
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Hydrobatidae
Status: Breeding Summer Visitor
It is specially protected by law and it is important that its breeding colonies are protected from introduced predators.
Spends most of its time at sea, only approaching land to breed and then only at night.

8 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of www.tintazul.com.pt/por/index.html

European Storm-petrel

Little Tern

Balearic Shearwater

Arctic Tern

Group: Storm Petrels
Binomial: Hydrobates pelagicus
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Hydrobatidae
Status: Breeding Summer Visitor
A small bird, the size of a house martin, which it superficially resembles with its dark plumage and white rump.
Only in Atlantic storms might this species be pushed into the headlands of south-western Ireland and England.

9 .

What is the name of this bird?

Photograph courtesy of Martin Meyrs

Arctic Tern

Manx Shearwater

Common Tern

Little Tern

Group: Shearwaters and Petrels
Binomial: Puffinus puffinus
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Procellariidae
Status: Breeding Summer Visitor
This bird looks like a flying cross, with its wing held at right angles to the body, and it changes from black to white as the black upperparts and white undersides are alternately exposed as it travels low over the sea.

10 .

What is the name of this bird?