A Black Noddy was photographed on Friday afternoon on the Port Aransas Jetty. I was unable to run up there over the weekend but got up dark and early on Monday and made the 200 mile drive. When I arrived there was David Bradford from Houston with whom I have been battling for some time in the Texas eBird rankings. We made the long walk out and eventually found it feeding with Black Terns near the tip of the jetty. Fortunately it came back to the jetty to preen providing great photo opps.
Black Noddy is one of five noddy tern species belonging to the genus Anous. They differ from most terns in that they lack a deeply forked tail and feed by picking from the water's surface rather than diving. Noddies are found in tropical waters and usually breed on remote islands. There are seven subspecies of Black Noddy found around the world. This individual is only the fourth to be found in Texas. Usually birders visit the Dry Tortugas off the Florida Keys to add this species to their ABA lists where they have been rare but regular in the colony of nesting Brown Noddies.
Anyway this was a lifer for me bringing my world total to 2665 species. It was species #601 for my Texas list. Fifteen years ago I got to see my only Brown Noddy from this same jetty. This was before I had a good camera or scope. Here's a very distant digiscope view.
This Black Noddy has pretty severe feather wear and is probably infested with feather mites. It seems to be frequently coming back to the jetty to rest about feeding bouts. I'm guessing flight is difficult with the ragged flight feathers. I don't know if they ever get better once they are in this state. It seems unusually tame but that is common among all the noddy species. I hope it lasts a while as it's a pretty cool bird.
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