Common Tern, diving
Sterna hirundo
Common Tern · Staten Island · 5 July 2026
A Common Tern caught mid-fold on the way into a dive off Staten Island. Terns hunt by plunging bill-first from height onto fish near the surface, a hunting style closer to an osprey's than to a gull's opportunistic scavenging, and the harbour's shallows are full of the small fish they want.
The black cap, blood-orange bill with a dark tip, and deeply forked tail are textbook Common Tern. It sees the fish from thirty feet up, checks, and drops.
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