- Sterna aurantia
Identification
38-43 cm.. Dark grey upperparts, white underparts, a forked tail with long flexible streamers, and long pointed wings, yellow bill, red legs, a black cap in breeding plumage. In the winter the cap is greyish white, flecked and streaked with black, there is a dark mask through the eye, and the tip of the bill becomes dusky.
The sexes are similar but juveniles have a brown head, brown-marked grey upperparts, grey breast sides and white underparts. The bill is yellowish with a dark tip
Distribution
Iran, Pakistan, India and Myanmar, sometimes Thailand.
Taxonomy
Habitat
Freshwater inland rivers and lakes.
Behaviour
Its diet includes fish, crustaceans, tadpoles and aquatic insects.
It nests in a ground scrape, often on bare rock or sand, and lays 3 greenish-grey to buff eggs, which are blotched and streaked with brown.
