Saturday, Bob and Deb Zaremba, and I visited the Altamaha on the east side of US17 and one of the first birds we saw was a medium sized tern that had a stout all black bill, a grayish cap and no black behind the eye like a Forster's, but with more of a darker smudge than the gray of the cap. It was all white underneath with the exception of the outer tips of the primaries which were dark. The upper body was mostly light gray with dark at the tips of the primaries on the upper side of the wing as well. The tail was short and slightly forked and the legs were black. I'm not sure if or when a first winter Gull-billed Tern loses the brownish feathering and brown bill so if it maintains those characteristics throughout winter, then this appears to be a winter adult bird.

This tern was originally reported on 12/15/2003 by Doris Cohrs and Scott Somershoe and seen again by Gene Keferl on 1/19/2004. Assuming that this is the same individual, it is only the fifth winter record of Gull-billed Tern in Georgia according to the Annotated Checklist of Georgia Birds.

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