Adult Antarctic Terns are near identical to Arctic Terns, right down to the bill colour and short legs. And to confuse things further Arctic Terns migrate to the Antarctic for the winter. But the juveniles are completely different (I refrained from saying "poles apart"). This is a recently fledged juvenile Antarctic Tern which is far more boldly patterned than Arctic Terns of a similar age. I have posted a juvenile Arctic Tern below for comparison. This was photographed at Cooper Bay on South Georgia where they breed. The scientific name of Antarctic Tern is Sterna vittata. Vittatus is a band or a ribbon and the body of this juvenile is indeed banded but vittatus can also refer to a headband so may refer to the black cap. Gmelin, who first described this species in 1789 also mentioned a white band between the black cap and the underparts, which is a feature of adult Antarctic Terns.
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