5 June 2025
Spring migration in Pittsburgh has been uncommon this yr. In Allegheny County at the very least 4 uncommon birds have stopped by on their method north.
Black terns (Chlidonias niger) are attractive in breeding plumage with a black head and underparts and gray-white again and wings. In flight the hen is mesmerizing whereas it hunts over water for bugs and fish or circles as much as view the panorama. At any second it modifications its flight fashion to resemble a butterfly, a swallow, a nighthawk, a flycatcher or a tern.
These movies aren’t from Imperial however they present why black terns are so lovely in flight.
Through the hen’s transient keep in Allegheny County, over 50 eBirders stopped by to see the black tern and lots of took pictures.
These embedded beneath from Macauley Library (Ezra White, Rob Hooten, John Drake, Phillip Rogers) present a sequence of black tern habits because the hen catches a fish: hovering, diving, arising with a fish, flying away, resting on the grass.
Black Tern Looking Sequence, Catching a Fish at Imperial Most important Pond
This black tern was one of the best I’ve ever seen, nearer than all of the others plus he stood on the bottom for some time (a primary for me).
He additionally had one thing to say…
Black Tern Vocalizing at Nightfall
As a result of Allegheny County solely sees black terns in migration it would in all probability be a few years earlier than one other comes once more.
We have been fortunate it visited in spring when it was lovely. Black terns aren’t black in autumn as proven in non-breeding plumage in Ohio, September 2014.
Certainly the hen was lovely final weekend in Pittsburgh.
