{"id":27770,"date":"2015-08-23T05:07:01","date_gmt":"2015-08-23T11:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=27770"},"modified":"2025-09-18T05:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:37:14","slug":"a-juvenile-royal-tern-head-on-and-an-optical-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/08\/23\/a-juvenile-royal-tern-head-on-and-an-optical-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Royal Tern Head On And An Optical Illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Royal Tern head on – Nikon D200, handheld,\u00a0 f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 300mm, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

While working on moving my photos to new galleries yesterday I came across this head on image of a juvenile Royal Tern taken at Fort De Soto County Park in 2008. Every time I look at this tern image I laugh because my mind sees a tiny starfish stuck on the birds face that is actually its bill. Because the tern is looking straight at me the length of the bill appears compressed and star shaped. The “starfish” is just an optical illusion.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Royal Tern close up – Nikon D200, handheld,\u00a0 f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The photo above is the same juvenile Royal Tern but shows the head and bill in profile and the bill doesn’t even remotely look like a starfish in this frame. I don’t know if other people see the starfish that I see because until now I haven’t shown the file to anyone else before.<\/p>\n

On my new photo galleries… I have moved about half the images to their new galleries but I still have 3591 to go. Most of those images are of birds. I think I an addicted to bird photography and that isn’t an illusion!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Royal Tern photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every time I look at this tern image I laugh because my mind sees a tiny starfish stuck on the birds face that is actually its bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,407],"tags":[4039,173,4592,4067,4071,6017,4376,4017,2315,2090,629,4267,4193],"class_list":["post-27770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-royal-terns","tag-beach","tag-gulf-coast","tag-illusion","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-optical-illusion","tag-royal-tern","tag-sand","tag-summer-3","tag-tern","tag-terns","tag-thalasseus-maximus","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/royal-tern-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6689.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-7dU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7300,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/01\/28\/the-answer-to-the-gull-and-tern-quiz-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":27770,"position":0},"title":"The Answer To The Gull And Tern Quiz Is…","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The majority of you voted for the correct answer: Juvenile Herring Gull, 1st winter Laughing Gull and Royal Tern","rel":"","context":"In "American Herring Gulls"","block_context":{"text":"American Herring Gulls","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gulls\/herring-gulls\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Royal Tern in breeding plumage with gift for mate, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/royal-tern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6391.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/royal-tern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6391.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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daybreak, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/royal-tern-juvenile-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-6951.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/royal-tern-juvenile-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-6951.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/royal-tern-juvenile-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-6951.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/royal-tern-juvenile-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-6951.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6497,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/11\/04\/royal-terns-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":27770,"position":2},"title":"Royal Terns In Breeding And Nonbreeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a simple post today to show the differences in the breeding and nonbreeding plumage of Royal Terns.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Royal Tern in nonbreeding plumage, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/royal-tern-nonbreeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-5895.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/royal-tern-nonbreeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-5895.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/royal-tern-nonbreeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-5895.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/sandwich-tern-immature-mia-mcpherson-7201.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/sandwich-tern-immature-mia-mcpherson-7201.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/sandwich-tern-immature-mia-mcpherson-7201.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/sandwich-tern-immature-mia-mcpherson-7201.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7277,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/01\/26\/gull-and-tern-quiz\/","url_meta":{"origin":27770,"position":4},"title":"Gull and Tern Quiz","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I came across this image this morning while working up my post Bird images from warmer days and all at 300mm or less and thought it might make a great image for a Bird ID Quiz.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird ID"","block_context":{"text":"Bird ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Herring and Laughing Gulls and a Royal Tern, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gulls-tern-mia-mcpherson-7874.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gulls-tern-mia-mcpherson-7874.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gulls-tern-mia-mcpherson-7874.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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