Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus)
Above and below: All parents embarass their kids.
Adult and juvenile Royal Terns loafing on the beach at the end of summer (Assateague Island, Maryland, 8/21/2011).
Below: Photographed on Tybee Island, Georgia (5/1/2006).
Below: Photographed in southern Florida in February 2005.
Below: An adult Royal Tern in nonbreeding plumage (right) roosting beside an adult Ring-billed Gull - North Beach, Calvert Co., Maryland (8/18/2007).
Below two: A juvenile Royal Tern roosting at North Beach, Calvert Co., Maryland (8/18/2007).
Below: A juvenile Royal Tern (left) at North Beach, Calvert Co., Maryland (8/18/2007). Forster's Tern at right.
Below: A Royal Tern perches on a piling on the Somerset side of the Whitehaven Ferry, Maryland (10/13/2007). Note the leg band.
Below: An adult Royal Tern near Ocean City, Maryland (6/26/2011). Like most of its kind in Maryland, you can see the band on its leg that was affixed at its breeding colony - an important part of their monitoring and conservation.
Below: Royal Terns at Bayside Assateague, Maryland (9/26/2009).
Below: A Royal Tern on Assateague Island, Maryland (8/21/2011).
Below: A Caspian Tern (left) and Royal Tern (right) on Assateague Island, Maryland (8/21/2011).
Below: A Royal Tern at the Ocean City Inlet, Maryland (7/23/2011).
Below two: A Royal Tern heading south in the dusk flight in Sussex Co., Delaware (6/25/2009).