The black-fronted tern (''Chlidonias albostriatus''), also known as sea martin, ploughboy, inland tern, riverbed tern or tarapiroe,Rod Morris and Alison Ballance, ''"Rare Wildlife of New Zealand"'', Random House, 2008 is a small

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

generally found in or near bodies of fresh water in New Zealand, where it forages for freshwater fish, arthropods and worms. It has a predominantly grey plumage. Restricted to breeding in the eastern regions of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

, it is declining and threatened by introduced mammals and birds. It is rated as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

on the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN)'s

Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

of Threatened Species.

Taxonomy

German naturalist

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and natural history, naturalist of partially Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of ...

described the black-fronted tern from a specimen collected at Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough in 1832, giving it the binomial name ''Sterna antarctica'', however the name had already been used for the Antarctic tern by French naturalist

René Lesson René-Primevère Lesson (20 March 1794 – 28 April 1849) was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist. Biography Lesson was born at Rochefort, and entered the Naval Medical School in Rochefort at the age of sixteen. He ...

the previous year. Sterna albostriata

The first valid description of the species was by

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother o ...

in 1845, who called it ''Hydrochelidon albostriata''. Its specific name is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''albus'' "white", and ''striatus'' "striped".

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

spelled its species name ''albistriata'' in 1856, which was adopted by subsequent authors until it was corrected by

Walter Oliver Walter Reginald Brook Oliver (7 September 1883 – 16 May 1957) was a New Zealand naturalist, ornithologist, malacologist, and museum curator. Biography Born in Launceston, Tasmania, Oliver emigrated with his family to New Zealand in 1896, set ...

in 1955. Its taxonomic placement was unclear for many years, as its plumage and migration inland to nest suggested it belonged with the

marsh tern The name marsh tern refers to terns of the genus ''Chlidonias'', which are typically found in freshwater marshes, rather than coastal locations. The genus name ''Chlidonias'' is from Ancient Greek , "swallow-like", from , "swallow". Species Ther ...

s of the genus ''Chlidonias'' yet it did not nest in marshes like the other members of that genus. Martin Moynihan described it as "the most puzzling case", ultimately placing it in ''Sterna'' as he suspected the similarity of its breeding plumage to that of ''C. hybrida'' was due to similarity in environment and observed that the nonbreeding plumage resembled that of other members of ''Sterna''. Gochfeld and Berger (1996) followed in keeping it in ''Sterna'', while

Charles Sibley Charles Gald Sibley (August 7, 1917 – April 12, 1998) was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our u ...

and

Burt Monroe Burt Leavelle Monroe, Jr. (25 August 1930 – 14 May 1994, in Louisville, Kentucky) was an American ornithologist, a professor at the University of Louisville, a member of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) beginning in 1953. Among his major ...

placed it in ''Chlidonias''. A 2005 molecular study by Bridge and colleagues placed it as a basal member of the marsh terns, settling the issue. The species has several vernacular names. Gray noted in 1845 that the Maori called it ''tarapiroe''. It is called ploughboy or ploughman's friend for its habit of foraging for earthworms and grubs in newly ploughed soil.

Description

Measuring 29 cm (12 in) in length, the adult tern has predominantly grey plumage with a black cap typical of many terns. The underparts and rump are white, and there is a thin white streak running along the cheeks underneath the cap. The bill is red and legs orange. The black cap recedes from the bill in non-breeding plumage and becomes flecked with white.

Distribution and habitat

Within New Zealand, the black-fronted tern is found from the southern tip of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

, and along much of the eastern

from

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

, and to

Stewart Island Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...

. There is an outlying population along the Buller and upper

Motueka River The Motueka River is located in the north of the South Island of New Zealand and is a popular tourist destination for watersports and fishing. The Motueka flows from the mountains 40 km west of the city of Nelson in the southeast of the ca ...

s in southern Nelson.

Breeding

The breeding range is restricted to South Island only. It lives along riverbanks and can forage out to 10 km (6 mi) at sea in the nonbreeding season. Fieldwork on the

Wairau River The Wairau River is one of the longest rivers in New Zealand's South Island. It flows for from the Spenser Mountains (a northern range of the Southern Alps), firstly in a northwards direction and then northeast down a long, straight valley in ...

in Marlbrorough showed that the

swamp harrier The swamp harrier (''Circus approximans''), also known as the Australasian marsh harrier, Australasian harrier or swamp-hawk, is a large, slim bird of prey widely distributed across Australasia. In New Zealand it is also known as the harrier hawk ...

(''Circus approximans'') is a common raider of black-fronted tern nests for eggs, with the native

kelp gull The kelp gull (''Larus dominicanus''), also known as the Dominican gull, is a gull that breeds on coasts and islands through much of the Southern Hemisphere. The nominate ''L. d. dominicanus'' is the subspecies found around South America, par ...

(''Larus dominicanus'') and South Island oystercatchers (''Haematopus finschi'') also raiding. Introduced mammals such as the cat (''Felis catus''), stoat (''Mustela erminea''), hedgehog (''Erinaceus europaeus occidentalis'') and black rat (''Rattus rattus'') have also been recorded.

Conservation

Numbers of black-fronted terns are decreasing across its range, and the species is classified as endangered. Threats include several species introduced to New Zealand - stoats ('' Mustela'' spp.), feral cats, the

brown rat The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Norwegian rat and Parisian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest muroids, it is a brown o ...

(''Rattus norvegicus''), hedgehog, dog, and from Australia, the

common brushtail possum The common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula'', from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus ''Phalangista'') is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Austr ...

(''Trichosurus vulpecula''), and

Australian magpie The Australian magpie (''Gymnorhina tibicen'') is a black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Although once considered to be three separate species, it is now considered to be one, with nine recognised subs ...

(''Gymnorhina tibicen''). File:NZBirds1.JPG, A black-fronted tern nest. File:NZBirds2.JPG, Black-fronted tern eggs.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q998588 black-fronted tern Birds of the South Island black-fronted tern black-fronted tern Endemic birds of New Zealand