From Opus

Chlidonias hybrida

Photo by Dick Hoogenboom
Photo taken: Lesvos, Greece

[edit] Identification

24-28 cm
Adult Summer

• Black cap
• White cheeks and sides of neck
• Dark grey underparts
• Lighter greyish above
• Red bill

Photo by armando tomas v
Delta Llobregat, Viladecans, Barcelona, Spain, May 2005

Adult Winter

• Black cap shrinks to leave a finely barred rear crown, with solid black patch behind the eye.
• Black bill

Juvenile

• Pale brown scaly upperparts
• Whitish rump

[edit] Similar Species

Summer adults resemble Common Terns more than Black Terns due to their black and white heads, but the short, broad wings and tails are typical of 'marsh terns'. and their underparts are so dark that the white cheeks stand out boldly.

Juveniles have a dark mantle reminiscent of the saddle on a White-winged Black Tern; however, it is not so dark in the Whiskered Tern. In addition the rump is not as conspicuously white as on a White-winged Black Tern and the wings of a Whiskered Tern are a more uniform grey.

Juvenile
Photo by horukuru
Kota Kinabalu Waterfront, Sabah, Malaysia, September 2009

The bill is heavier than in other 'marsh terns'.

[edit] Distribution

Europe and Asia. They migrate to sub-Saharan west Africa in the winter, although a few birds will remain in the Mediterranean. Birds which breed in eastern Europe winter in large numbers in the Nile Delta and eastern and southern Africa.

Accidental vagrant to Cape May, New Jersey (2 records) with one moving south to Delaware.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies

There are 7 subspecies named by Clements^[1]:

• C. h. hybrida - South-western Europe to Kazakhstan; winters Africa and south-western Asia
• C. h. swinhoei - Transbaikalia to eastern China and Taiwan
• C. h. indicus - Eastern Iran and Pakistan to northern India
• C. h. javanicus - North-eastern India and Sri Lanka; winters Malaysia and Indonesia
• C. h. sclateri - South Africa and Madagascar
• C. h. delalandii - Kenya to Tanzania
• C. h. fluviatilis - Australia; disperses to New Guinea and Moluccas

[edit] Habitat

Inland marshes, pools and fishponds.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes terrestrial and aquatic insects, spiders, frogs, tadpoles, small crabs, shrimps and small fish.

[edit] Breeding

The nest is a heap of aquatic vegetation or dry grass, placed either on floating vegetation. They nest in colonies.

[edit] References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2012. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2012. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. BirdLife International
3. Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
4. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition
5. Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6

• List of references

[edit] External Links