Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) parent bringing a fish in her beak to her youngster

1 of 2 Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) parent bringing a fish in her beak to her youngster, originally uploaded by mikebaird.

This is a great shot of an anchovy, perhaps even a deepbody anchovy (Anchoa compressa) based on the relatively short distance between the back of the eye and the ventral edge of the operculum. Also the hues seem a bit more brownish green than the bluish black that is typical in the northern anchovy. The fact that the fish is bleeding and shows head wound trauma is very typical of anchovy in general. Elegant Tern bills range from 56 - 70 mm, but using a mean of around 63 mm would result in an estimated fish length of just over a bill and half or 10 cm.