From Opus

Photo by NIGHTJAR1
Farne Islands, U.K.

Thalasseus sandvicensis

Includes Cayenne Tern and Cabot's Tern
Sterna sandvicensis

[edit] Identification

37-43cm

• Thin black bill with pale yellow tip
• Black legs
• Feet have yellow soles^[1]
• Light grey above with blackish wing tips. The rump and rather short forked tail is white. Underparts white (sometimes tinged creamy-pink).
  

Adult breeding plumage
Photo by AlanR
Brownsea Island, May 2008

Summer Adult: forehead, crown and nape black. Loose long feathers at the nape seem to form a crest in the wind or when excited.
Winter Adult black areas on head turn white and speckledy-grey on the crest. This happens as early as June.
Juvenile: speckled blackish-brown on mantle and wings, brown on forehead, crown and nape; white elsewhere. Bill is sometimes all black.

[edit] Distribution

Europe, Atlantic coasts of North and South America. A summer visitor to Britain.

European birds winter on the west coast of Africa.

[edit] Taxonomy

Adult Winter plumage
Photo by IanF
Newburn Bridge, Hartlepool, Cleveland, UK, October 2008

This species is also been placed in genus Sterna.

[edit] Subspecies

• T. s. sandvicensis breeds on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe.
• T. s. acuflavida breeds on Atlantic coasts of North America.
• T. s. eurygnatha (sometimes treated as a separate species, Cayenne Tern T. eurygnatha) breeds on the Atlantic coast of South America.

According to a new study (Efe, M. A., Tavares, E. S., Baker, A. J. & Bonatto, S. L. 2009) acuflavida (with subspecies eurygnatha) should be treated as separate species, Cabot's Tern.

[edit] Habitat

Almost entirely maritime. Breeds on shingly and sandy coasts and islands.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Flight

Strong flight, often quite high.

[edit] Breeding

Colonial nesters (often with Common and Arctic Terns), the nest is a ground scrape and they lay 1-3 eggs.

[edit] Diet

1st Winter
Photo by bobsofpa
Fort Island Trail Beach, Crystal River, Florida, USA, August 2007

Its diet includes fish which it catches by plunging into the sea.

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Cornell and Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
2. Wikipedia
3. Birdwatchers Pocket Guide ISBN 1-85732-804-3
4. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition
5. Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6
6. Arthur Grosset

• List of references

[edit] External Links