Sooty tern
| Sooty tern | ||||||||||
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Sooty Tern ( Onychoprion fuscatus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Onychoprion fuscatus | ||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The sooty tern ( Onychoprion fuscatus ) is a seabird in the family of the tern . In the past the species was placed in the genus Sterna .
features
The sooty tern is a large tern that reaches a size similar to that of the sandwich tern ( Sterna sandvicensis ). It has a length of 33 to 36 centimeters and a wingspan of 82 to 94 centimeters. The wings and the deeply forked tail are long. The top is gray and the bottom is white. The bill and legs are black. Young sooty terns are pale gray on the top and bottom. Her call is a loud, piercing ker-wack-a-wack or kvaark.
There are two similar races: O. f. fuscatus from the Caribbean , Atlantic, and West Africa has a white underside, while O. f. nubilosus , which breeds from the Red Sea to southeast Asia, has a grayish tint on the belly and on the under wing-coverts.
The sooty tern is hardly to be confused with other species of tern, except with the smaller chin tern . The back is similarly colored but darker. Furthermore, she has a broader white forehead and no light collar.
distribution and habitat
It is a bird of the tropical seas that breeds on islands all over the equatorial zone . The species is a migratory bird and largely overwinters over the tropical seas. The sooty tern is an extremely rare guest in Western Europe. In July 2005 there was a sighting in Cemlyn Bay , Wales .
Way of life
Sooty terns breed in colonies on rock or coral islands, such as Ascension and the Seychelles . They nest on the scraped ground or in hollows and lay one to three eggs. The black tern feeds on fish that it catches on the surface of the sea. You can watch them in large swarms. Apart from the breeding season, it can spend anywhere from three to ten years above the sea.
photos
Undershoot
Breeding colony
chick
In flight
White frigate bird with a captured sooty tern chick
Sooty Tern and its nest
A flock of sooty terns
literature
- Collinson, M. (2006). Splitting headaches? Recent taxonomic changes affecting the British and Western Palaearctic lists. British Birds 99 (6): 306-323.
- Olsen, Klaus Malling & Larsson, Hans (1995): Terns of Europe and North America . Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-4056-1
Movie
In the film Rapa Nui - Rebellion in Paradise it goes. a. about being the first to bring a sooty tern egg from a rocky island to Easter Island in an archaic competition .
Web links
- Onychoprion fuscatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Sterna fuscata in the Internet Bird Collection
- Bridge, ES; Jones, AW & Baker, AJ (2005): A phylogenetic framework for the terns (Sternini) inferred from mtDNA sequences: implications for taxonomy and plumage evolution. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35 : 459-469. PDF full text ( Memento from March 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Avibase entry: Sooty Tern ( Onychoprion fuscatus ) Linnaeus, 1766
Individual evidence
- ^ Bridge et al., 2005
- ↑ Alexander Nortrup, Winfried Schumacher: Tapati Festival on Easter Island: Vogelmann in the Schleudergang In: Spiegel online , February 18, 2013, accessed February 1, 2015.