Today's Bird: The Sandwich Tern!

Today's bird is the Sandwich Tern!  Terns are closely related to gulls and sometimes they hang out together (there was a laughing gull in the background). They're one of America's more rare terns, only living along the Gulf Coast.  Their distinguishing feature is the black bill with that little yellow tip; it's a sure thing you've got a Sandwich rather than one of the other types of terns that's also lurking in the original, uncropped version of this photograph.  I took this picture at South Padre Island on the bay side on May 26, 2012.