CORRECTED ID: Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus) with a fish in beak feeding youngster, originally uploaded by mikebaird.
The wonderful resolution of this photo allows a confident identification of a clupeid because you can see distinctive scales on the back and in fact a few rough spots were scales have popped out through the trauma of capture and transport. Although the head is completely out of view the elongate fusiform body with only modest tapering in the peduncle suggest it is probably a Pacific herring or sardine and not one of the threadfin herring or shad which are relatively deeper bodied and taper a bit more in the peduncle. Royal Tern exposed culmen run in the 63-65 mm range, so this fish is probably at least 13 cm long.
Review the original posting to get some great field marks regarding Elegant and Royal Terns. I have also seen Caspian Terns with the unusually red or red mottled legs as well.
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