- Onychoprion anaethetus
Sterna anaethetus
Identification
35–38 cm (13¾-15 in)
- Brownish-grey upperparts
- Narrow white forehead patch, extending behind eye
- Black loral stripe
- May show pale collar
- White underparts
- Black legs and bill
- Long deeply forked tail
Juvenile:
- Scaly grey upperparts
- Pale underparts
Distribution
Mexico, the Caribbean and west Africa; other races occur around Arabia and in Southeast Asia and Australasia.
Scarce vagrant to British Isles, usually during the summer.
Taxonomy
Sooty Tern, Bridled Tern, Grey-backed Tern and Aleutian Tern are each others closest relatives; all four were included in the genus Sterna in the past. [1].
Subspecies
There are 4 subspecies recognized[1]:
- O. a. melanopterus:
- tropical North Atlantic (West Indies, Belize and islands off Venezuela; coastal western Africa
- O. a. antarcticus:
- Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean (including Madagascar, Aldabra, Seychelles, Mascarene and Andaman islands) east to the Maldives and Chagos Islands
- O. a. anaethetus:
- Ryukyu Island, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia
- O. a. nelsoni:
- West coast of Mexico and Central America
Habitat
Oceans; breeds on coral beaches and rocky islands.
Behaviour
Breeding
The single egg is laid in a ground scrape or hole.
Diet
The diet consists of fish, squid, crustaceans and aquatic insects.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved October 2015)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Bridled Tern. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 8 June 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Bridled_Tern
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.
