[Royal Tern] (P) (Thalasseus maximus) | Start Date 1936-01-01 |
| Ref | First | Last | Location | County | 2 | 3 | Comment | Status |
1 | 95:115 | 2023-09-21 | 2023-09-25 | various locations along the St. Croix River from Stillwater to Point Douglas | Washington | | | (record #2023-085, vote 0-10). Accepted as Thalasseus sp. (vote 9-1), but also see below for Not Accepted records. | Accepted |
| 95:115 | 2023-09-21 | 2023-09-25 | various locations along the St. Croix River from Stillwater to Point Douglas | Washington | | | (record #2023-085, vote 0-10). The bird was originally seen just north of Stillwater on the St. Croix River and subsequently reported as far as 23 miles down river to Point Douglas near Prescott, Wisconsin. All observations were while the bird was in flight at varying distances. These sporadic observations cover a time span of five days. The original observer, to his credit, should be complimented for capturing photographs as well as an audio recording of the vocalizations. An analysis was conducted on the audio recording comparing the vocalizations to both Royal Tern and Elegant Tern (T. elegans). The results showed that there is a similarity in the particular vocalizations making these two species indistinguishable. Photographs were not diagnostic. The written descriptions among several birders had considerable variation regarding some features of the bird. Given the time span and distance of these reports, one might question whether they even represented the same bird. Overall, the Committee after much discussion unanimously concluded that the identification could not be assigned to a specific species of Thalasseus tern, but was accepted as Thalasseus sp. | Not Accepted |
| 95:115 | 2023-09-25 | | Spring Lake | Dakota | | | (record #2023-086, vote 0-10). The observer does not state whether it was perched or in-flight for the mere 30 second observation from 220 yards distant. Most members felt that the description of the bird was well short of expectations for a first state record. | Not Accepted |
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  | One sighting. This sighting has yet to be been considered by MOURC. |