White-winged Tern
Chlidonias leucopterus
Buoyant “river tern” with dramatically different breeding and non-breeding plumages. Breeding adult is wildly conspicuous in flight, with contrasting black-and-white plumage; at rest note white shoulders contrasting with black body. Non-breeding and younger birds are white with gray patches and black “earmuffs.” In areas of overlap, juvenile told from Black Tern by dark back contrasting with lighter upperwings and white rump and by black marking above the shoulder. Non-breeding Whiskered Tern can be similar, but has a faded, patchy dark crown instead of earmuffs. Commonly found in flocks around rivers, lakes, and wetlands, where it picks food from surface instead of splash-diving; generally not as closely associated with saltwater as many typical terns.
Identification
Adult birds in summer have short red legs and a short black bill (small and stubby, measuring 22–25 mm from the feathers, decidedly shorter than the head), a black neck (often with a pale gray back) and belly, very dark grey back, with a white rump and light grey (almost white) tail, which often looks 'square' in juveniles. The face is tinged yellowish. The wings, as the name implies, are mainly white. The inner wing is grayish with brown-tipped coverts. In non-breeding plumage, most of the black is replaced by white or pale grey, though a few blackish feathers may be retained, admixed with white underparts. A good deal of black shows in the underwing-coverts. The head is black, with a white forehead. The crown is blackish-brown, flecked with white, and the hindcrown is blackish with a certain amount of white flecking. These white markings are pronounced in the winter adult. There is a dark triangular patch forward of the eye. The collar is fairly broad and white. In juveniles and moulting adults, the rump is pale gray, becoming grey in both phases late in the year. The clear white collar and rump isolate the mantle as a dark brown 'saddle'. The mantle feathers have narrow paler brown tips, as have the tertials and scapulars.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Chlidonias leucopterus
- Authority
- (Temminck, 1815)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Laridae
- Genus
- Chlidonias
Range and habitat
Their breeding habitat is freshwater marshes across from southeast Europe to Central Asia and the Russian Far East. They usually nest either on floating vegetation in a marsh or on the ground very close to water, laying 2-4 eggs in a nest built of small reed stems and other vegetation. In winter, they migrate to Africa, southern Asia and Australia. It is a scarce vagrant in North America, mainly on the Atlantic coast, but a few records on the Pacific coast and inland in the Great Lakes area.
- Breeding range
- PAL : inland sc, e Europe and Iraq to se Russia, ne China and nc Siberia
- Non-breeding range
- to coastal and inland Africa n and s of Sahara; se Asia and e China, Philippines, Indonesian Arch., and coastal New Guinea and Australia
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Like the other "marsh" terns (Chlidonias), and unlike the "white" (Sterna) terns, these birds do not dive for fish, but fly slowly over the water to surface-pick items and catch insects in flight. They mainly eat insects and small fish. In flight, the wing-beats are shallow and leisurely.<p>The white-winged tern is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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