Chin tern

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Chin tern
Chinstrap (Onychoprion anaethetus)

Chinstrap ( Onychoprion anaethetus )

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Plover-like (Charadriiformes)
Family : Terns (Sternidae)
Genre : Onychoprion
Type : Chin tern
Scientific name
Onychoprion anaethetus
( Scopoli , 1786)

The chin tern ( Onychoprion anaethetus , Syn . : Sterna anaethetus ) is a sea bird from the family of the tern . It used to be placed in the genus Sterna (Bridge et al., 2005). It is common in all tropical and subtropical seas.

description

The chin tern is a small tern that reaches a length of 30 to 32 centimeters and a wingspan of 77 to 81 centimeters. It is about the same size as the common tern . The wings and the deeply forked tail are long. The hood is black. A narrow white band on the forehead tapers at least an inch behind the eye to form a pointed eye stripe. An even, narrow black rein strip runs from the base of the lower mandible to the eye. The top is dark gray to black, the underside white. The coat and the large arm covers are gray to medium brown. The flight feathers are black-brown. The young birds are white on the underside and pale gray on the top.

Distribution and occurrence

The chin tern is a migratory bird that breeds on rocky islands and overwinters over the oceans. The Atlantic subspecies O. n. Melanopters breeds in Mexico , the Caribbean and West Africa . Other races occur in the Arab region, in Southeast Asia and Australasia . However, the exact number of valid subspecies is controversial.

Way of life and food

The chin tern nests on the scraped ground or in hollows and lays an egg. Their diet consists of small fish or octopus, which they either catch by shock diving or, like the black tern and salmon tern , catch on the surface. In contrast to the arctic tern , which favors the search flight, the chin tern usually dives directly for its prey. The handover of a fish from the male to the female is part of the mating game. The greatest natural enemy of the chin tern is the frigate bird, to which most of the chicks on some islands fall prey.

literature

  • 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
  • Bull, John L .; Farrand, John Jr .; Rayfield, Susan & National Audubon Society (1977): The Audubon Society field guide to North American birds, Eastern Region . Alfred A. Knopf, New York, ISBN 0-394-41405-5
  • 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

Web links

Commons : Onychoprion anaethetus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files