{"id":40497,"date":"2016-07-11T05:57:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T11:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=40497"},"modified":"2025-09-18T05:41:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:41:53","slug":"juvenile-royal-terns-on-the-gulf-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/07\/11\/juvenile-royal-terns-on-the-gulf-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Royal Terns on the Gulf Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Royal Tern at daybreak – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/500, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I spent some time working on reprocessing some of my Royal Tern images and moving those to my new photo galleries this past week. We don’t have Royal Terns here in Utah, they are only found along ocean beaches of the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf, Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America.<\/p>\n

The genus name for Royal Terns,\u00a0Thalasseus maximus<\/i>, is from Ancient Greek Thalasseus, “fisherman”, from thalassa, “sea”. The specific maximus is Latin for ‘”greatest”.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Royal Tern “Feed Me” dance” – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I lived in Florida I was able to see and photograph juvenile Royal Terns on the Gulf Coast were they could be seen along the shoreline and they were usually begging the adults for food. I noticed that some of the juveniles would shuffle their feet rapidly on the sand while calling when they saw the adults were bringing them something to eat.<\/p>\n

The juvenile in the top image was photographed the end of August of 2008 and its bill hasn’t fully developed the yellow orange coloration typical for Royals Terns. The juvenile in the second image was photograph the early part of October and was older than the juvenile in the first image and shows the typical bill color for Royal Terns.<\/p>\n

I still have a few more images of Royal Terns to reprocess and add to my gallery but those will have to wait.<\/p>\n

I’m packing up to head out into the wilderness today, time to get away from the craziness for a bit and immerse myself in the wonders of nature. I hope to be able to post from the road but that depends on being able to connect to the rest of the planet via my cell phone signal.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Royal Tern photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

I am behind of replying to emails after having nearly a solid week of internet connection issues that were making me a bit batty. Please know I will reply when I can find time.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I lived in Florida I was able to see and photograph juvenile Royal Terns on the Gulf Coast were they could be seen along the shoreline and they were usually begging the adults for food. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141832,"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":[740,5280,173,4071,4376,629,4267],"class_list":["post-40497","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-begging","tag-daybreak","tag-gulf-coast","tag-juvenile","tag-royal-tern","tag-terns","tag-thalasseus-maximus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/royal-tern-juvenile-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-6951.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-axb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6497,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/11\/04\/royal-terns-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":40497,"position":0},"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, 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