The black-naped tern (''Sterna sumatrana'') is an oceanic
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 ...
mostly found in tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is rarely found inland.
Description
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.
There are two listed
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
:
*''S. s. mathewsi''
(Stresemann Stresemann is a German family name which may refer to:
* Christina Stresemann (born 1957), German judge; daughter of Wolfgang Stresemann
* Erwin Stresemann (1889 – 1972), German ornithologist
* Gustav Stresemann (1878 – 1929), German politician ...
, 1914) – islands of the western
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
*''S. s. sumatrana''
( Raffles, 1822) – islands of the eastern
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
through to the western
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
&
Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologic ...
References
External links
Kiru Dhooni
black-naped tern
Birds of the Maldives
Birds of Seychelles
Birds of Southeast Asia
Birds of Oceania
black-naped tern
Articles containing video clips
{{Charadriiformes-stub