Other Names (World)
Common White Tern, White-Tern, Common White-Tern, Fairy Tern, Common Fairy-Tern, Little Fairy-Tern, Atlantic Fairy-Tern, Cocos Fairy-Tern, White Noddy, Love Tern, Lover Tern, Pacific Tern, White Bird
American Samoa, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory (B), Chile, China (mainland), Cocos (Keeling) Islands (B), Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam (B), India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands (B), Mauritius (B), Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia [Federated States of] (B), Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand (B), Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau (B), Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands (B), Réunion, Samoa, Seychelles (B), Solomon Islands, St Helena, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, United States Minor Outlying Islands (B), USA, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna Islands (B).
Vagrant to Christmas Island.
Population
Estimated population is 150,000 - 1,100,000 (2010).
White Tern (Gygis alba) [XC34801]
by Todd Mark from Cocos Island, off Rodrigues, Mauritius (flight call, flight calls at nest)
White Tern (Gygis alba) [XC75212]
by david m from Meiaute, Hane, Ua Huka, Marquesas Is., French Polynesia, France (call)
Nest
None. The egg is laid in a shallow crevice or on the fork of a horizontal limb of a tree. Usually in colonies.
Eggs (Guide)
1; greyish to pale buff, spotted and scrolled with various shades of brown.
Young
Precocial, semi-nidifugous. Fledge in 60 - 75 days.
Subspecies
Subspecies microrhyncha sometimes separated as distinct species, but apparently interbreeds with Common White-Tern (Gygis alba) in Kiribati.
Some authors recognize several additional races, including royana of Norfolk I and Kermadec Is, pacifica of Caroline Is, Melanesia and other islands of southern Pacific, and rothschildi of Hawaii, all of which herein included in nominate race, but all are sometimes referred instead to subspecies candida. Birds of Seychelles and Mascarenes described as monte, but not separable from candida.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
alba (Sparrman, 1786) - Breeds Atlantic Ocean.
candida (Gmelin, JF, 1789) - Breeds tropical Indian Ocean, including Cocos - Keeling Islands, and much of tropical Pacific Ocean, including Norfolk, Lord Howe and Kermadec Islands.
microrhyncha Saunders, H, 1876 - Breeds Marquesas Island and possibly Kiribati. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Little White Tern (Gygis microrhyncha).
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet