Black-naped Tern
Sterna sumatrana
A medium-sized, long-winged, long-tailed tern of warm tropical seas. Adults appear snow-white except for a thin black nape stripe that extends from the eye (often not very visible from a distance), black outer edge to outermost primary, and thin, long black bill. Hovers frequently while foraging and dips down daintily to pick prey from just below the water's surface. Flies quickly and lightly, often associating with Bridled, Roseate, and Crested terns. Breeds colonially on rocky oceanic islands and headlands. Call a grating “grrri.”
Identification
The tern is about 30 cm long with a wing length of 21–23 cm. Their beaks and legs are black, but the tips of their bills are yellow. They have long forked tails. The black-naped tern has a white face and breast with a grayish-white back and wings. The first couple of their primary feathers are gray.<p>There are two listed subspecies:
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Sterna sumatrana
- Authority
- Raffles, 1822
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Laridae
- Genus
- Sterna
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- AF, OR, AU : islands off tropical Indian and Pacific oceans from Seychelles to Cook Is. (e Polynesia)
- Non-breeding range
- IO, s PO
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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