The sooty tern (''Onychoprion fuscatus'') is a

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also ...

in the family Laridae. It is a

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

of the tropical oceans, and remarkably, has evolved the ability to fly for years at a time, skimming the sea surface for food, and returning to land only to breed, on islands throughout the

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

ial zone.

Taxonomy

The sooty tern was described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1766 as ''Sterna fuscata'', bearing this name for many years until the genus ''Sterna'' was split up; it is now classified in the genus '' Onychoprion'' as ''Onychoprion fuscatus''. The genus name is from

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

, "claw" or "nail", and , "saw". The species name ''fuscatus'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "dark". The sooty tern has little interspecific variation, but it is usually divided into six to eight

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

subspecies. Some recent authors further subdivide the

Indopacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

population into up to eight

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

altogether, but much of the variation is clinal. The affinities of eastern Pacific birds (including ''O. f. manutarus'' of

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

) are most strongly contested. Six subspecies are currently accepted by the IOC: *''Onychoprion fuscatus fuscatus'' (Linnaeus, 1766) – breeds on tropical

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

islands. Underparts white. *''Onychoprion fuscatus nubilosus'' (Sparrman, 1788) – breeds across the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

from the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, and also the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. Underparts light grey in fresh plumage, dull white in worn plumage. * ''Onychoprion fuscatus serratus'' (Wagler, 1830) – breeds on islands off

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

. * ''Onychoprion fuscatus oahuensis'' (Bloxam, 1826) – breeds in the north-central tropical Pacific Ocean from the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , is a list of islands of Japan, Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and Island#Tropical islands, tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total ...

through

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

to southern

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. * ''Onychoprion fuscatus crissalis'' Lawrence, 1872 – breeds in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean from Guadalupe Island to the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

. * ''Onychoprion fuscatus luctuosus'' (Philippi & Landbeck, 1866) – breeds on the

Juan Fernández Islands The Juan Fernández Islands () are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic islands: Robinson Crusoe Island, R ...

off Chile in the subtropical southeastern Pacific Ocean. Two additional subspecies have been suggested by other authors: * ''Onychoprion fuscatus infuscatus'' (Lichtenstein, 1823) –

Sunda Islands The Sunda Islands (; Tetun: ''Illa Sunda'') are a group of islands in the Indonesian Archipelago. They consist of the Greater Sunda Islands and the Lesser Sunda Islands. Etymology "Sunda" denotes the continental shelves or landmasses: the Sun ...

and vicinity (included in ''O. f. nubilosus'' by IOC). * ''Onychoprion fuscatus kermadeci'' Mathews, 1916. – Kermadec Islands (included in ''O. f. serratus'' by IOC). File:Onychoprion fuscatus Ascension Island 7.jpg, ''O. f. fuscatus'' on

Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overs ...

Sterna fuscata.JPG, ''O. f. oahuensis'' on Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals, Hawaii Onychoprion fuscatus -Rodrigues Island, Indian Ocean -flying-8.jpg, ''O. f. nubilosus'', Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean Sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus serrata) in flight Michaelmas Cay.jpg, ''O. f. serratus'', Michaelmas Cay, Queensland

Description

It is a medium-large tern, similar in size to the Sandwich tern (''Thalasseus sandvicensis'') at long with an wingspan. The wings and tail are long, and it has black to dark blackish-brown upperparts and white underparts, and a white forehead. The tail is moderately deeply forked (more deeply forked than in '' Thalasseus'' terns, but less deeply than most '' Sterna'' terns), black, with white outer edges. It has black legs and bill. The average life span is 32 years. Juvenile sooty terns are grey-black above and below with narrow pale fringes on the upperpart feathers giving a scaly appearance above, and whitish on only the lower belly. The sooty tern is unlikely to be confused with any tern apart from the similarly dark-backed but smaller bridled tern (''O. anaethetus''). It is darker-backed than that species, and has a broader white forehead and no pale neck collar. The call is a loud piercing 'wide-a-wake', also cited as ; it also has a harsh alarm call .

Ecology

Sooty terns breed in colonies on rocky or

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

islands.Streets (1877) It nests in a ground scrape or hole and lays a single egg, typically in the afternoon. Although "two-egg clutches" have been reported, they probably occur when an egg from one nest rolls into another. It feeds by picking

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

from the surface in marine environments, often in large flocks, and rarely comes to land except to breed, and can stay out to sea for 3 to 10 years. Due to the lack of oil in its feathers, it cannot float, and spends that entire time on the wing. This bird is migratory and dispersive, wintering more widely through the tropical oceans. It has very marine habits compared to most terns; sooty terns are generally found inland only after severe

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...

s. The

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

, for example, has a male specimen which was found exhausted on August 2, 1933 on the slopes of Mount Cameroon above

Buea Buea is the capital of the Southwest Region (Cameroon), Southwest Region of Cameroon. The city is located in Fako (department), Fako Division, on the eastern slopes of Mount Cameroon, and has a population of about 800.000 inhabitants as of 2 ...

, about ASL, after foul weather had hit the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea (French language, French: ''Golfe de Guinée''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Golfo de Guinea''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Golfo da Guiné'') is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez i ...

. This species is a rare vagrant to western Europe, although a bird was present at Cemlyn Bay,

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

for 11 days in July 2005. It is also not normally found on the

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 the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

coasts of the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

due to its

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

habits. At

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, where several nesting locations are offshore, it can be seen more frequently, whereas for example only two individuals have ever been recorded on the coast of

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

- one

ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...

recovered in 1972, and a bird photographed on October 10, 2001 at Lake Olomega which was probably blown there by a storm.

Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

s can also devastate small breeding colonies, as has been surmised for example for the sooty tern nesting sites on cays off the San Andrés Islands of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. An exceptionally common bird, the sooty tern is not considered threatened by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

In culture

Colloquially, it is sometimes known as "wideawake" or "wideawake tern"; an onomatopoeic name derived from its call 'wide-a-wake', as is the Hawaiian name ''ʻewa ʻewa'' which roughly means "

cacophony Phonaesthetics (also spelled phonesthetics in North America) is the study of the beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words. The term was first used in this sense, perhaps by during the mid-20th century ...

". In most of

its name is ''manutara'' or similar, literally "tern-bird",The Polynesian word for terns (''tara'') is the same as the word for "pointed"; it is easy to see how these sharp-billed fork-tailed birds came to be called thus (Tregear, 1891) though it might be better rendered in English as "the tern" or "common tern". This refers to the fact that wherever Polynesian seafarers went on their long voyages, they usually would find these birds in astounding numbers. It is also known as ''kaveka'' in the

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan language, Marquesan: ' (North Marquesan language, North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan language, South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcano, volcanic islands in ...

, where dishes using its eggs are a delicacy. On

, this species and the spectacled tern (''O. lunatus'') are collectively known as ''manutara''. The ''manutara'' played an important role in the '' tangata manu'' ("birdman") ritual: whichever ''hopu'' (champion) could retrieve the first ''manutara'' egg from

Motu Nui Motu Nui is the largest of the Islet, islets located off the southwestern coast of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and constitutes the westernmost point of Chile. Covering an area of 3.9 hectares, it is the summit of a submerged volcanic mountain tha ...

islet would become that year's ''tangata manu''; his

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

would receive prime access to resources, especially seabird eggs.

Gallery

Image:Sooty tern flying.JPG, Sooty tern colony on Tern Island (

French Frigate Shoals The French Frigate Shoals (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: Kānemilohai) is the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, located about northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu. Its name commemorates France, French explorer Jean-Fran ...

) Image:Sooty Tern chick.JPG, Chick on Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals Image:BFAL SOTE shade.JPG, Sooty tern chicks seeking shade under the shadow of a young black-footed albatross Image:Frigate sooty.JPG, A chick is snatched by a predatory

great frigatebird The great frigatebird (''Fregata minor'') is a large seabird in the frigatebird family (biology), family. There are major nesting populations in the tropical Pacific Ocean, such as Hawaii and the Galápagos Islands; in the Indian Ocean, colonies ...

File:Onychoprion fuscatus -Phillip Island, Norfolk Island group, Australia -egg-8.jpg, Egg

References

Sources

* Boulton, Rudyerd & Rand, A.L. (1952): A collection of birds from Mount Cameroon. '' Fieldiana Zoology'' 34 (5): 35–64
Fulltext
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

* * * * Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel Hoyt; Mookini, Esther T. & Nishizawa, Yu Mapuana (1992): ''New Pocket Hawaiian Dictionary with a Concise Grammars and Given Names in Hawaiian''. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. * Streets, Thomas H. (1877): Some Account of the Natural History of the Fanning Group of Islands. '' Am. Nat.'' 11 (2): 65–72
First page image
* Tregear, Edward (1891):
Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary
'. Lyon and Blair, Wellington.

External links

Sooty tern article at BirdNote.org
()

() {{Authority control Birds described in 1766 Birds of Ascension Island Birds of Hawaii Birds of Norfolk Island Birds of the Atlantic Ocean Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds of the Indian Ocean Birds of the Pacific Ocean Least concern biota of Asia Least concern biota of Oceania Onychoprion Fauna of the Pantropical realm Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Terns