Rüppell's tern
| Rüppell's tern | ||||||||||
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Black Tern ( Thalasseus bengalensis ) |
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| Thalasseus bengalensis | ||||||||||
| ( Lesson , 1831) |
The Lesser Crested Tern ( Thalasseus bengalensis , syn. : Sterna bengalensis ) is a bird art from the family of the terns (Sternidae). The species epithet honors the German natural scientist and Africa researcher Eduard Rüppell .
features
With a body length of 33 to 40 centimeters, the Rüppell tern is slightly smaller than the sandwich and salmon tern . Their beak, however, is slimmer and more pointed, bright orange-yellow in young birds and bright orange in adult birds. It has a black hood like the king tern and also a white forehead in a simple and youthful dress . The upper side is drawn less contrasting in the youth dress, in the splendid dress it is monochrome dark gray. The legs of the young birds are matt brown-gray and turn black early as in the adult birds.
distribution
The individuals that breed in Libya overwinter on the coast of North West Africa . Rüppellseeschwalben are rare wanderers in Europe . There were single broods in Italy and Spain . They have also been spotted in the Portuguese Algarve .
Danger
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) rates the Rüppell tern with all subspecies on its Red List as "not endangered" (least concern).
literature
- H. Heinzel, R. Fitter, J. Parslow: Parey's bird book . 5th edition, Collins Publishers, Hamburg, Berlin Parey 1988, ISBN 3-490-22018-8
- Svensson, L .; Grant, PJ; Mullarney, K .; Zetterström, D .: The new cosmos bird guide - all species of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co., Stuttgart. 1999. ISBN 3-440-07720-9
Web links
- Thalasseus bengalensis in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.