BTO BirdFacts - Sooty Tern


Home > BirdFacts > terns > Sooty Tern

For details point at or click the button; for sources point at the button

Sooty Tern Onychoprion fuscatus [Linnaeus, 1766]


	Order: Charadriiformes	Family: Sternidae
	BTO Codes: , SOOTE	EURING No: 6230
	Number in Britain: Fewer than 20 records
	Conservation Status:
	UK: Unlisted
	European: Not evaluated
	Global: Least Concern
View video clips from IBC

Status in UK: (A) Accidental
Subspecies: fuscata recorded in Britain (of 7 subsp. in the world)
.
Length: 34 cm	Wingspan: 88 cm	Weight: -

Scientific name from:	Gr.: onux=claw + prion=saw and L.: fuscatus=to dark (from fuscare=to darken)
World Distribution:	BREEDS: Islands in Pacific, S Atlantic & Indian Oceans, RANGES: tropical seas

Habitat:	Sandy or coral beaches, otherwise pelagic
Diet:	Small fish, crustaceans and squid picked from water surface
TitBit:	One of the most aerial of terns, the Sooty Tern rarely comes to land, except to breed, which most do not attempt until they are at least 6 years old, during which time they may never touch the ground


Records and Distribution

First Record: Staffordshire, 1852
Total Number of Records (1958-2004): 10	Summary of Records by Year
Most Likely to Occur in: June to August

Most Recent County Records:
Scotland: Fife (1989), Upper Forth (1939),
North-east England: Northumberland (1966),
North-west England: Cumbria (1933), Lancashire (1901),
English Midlands: Northamptonshire (1980), Staffordshire (1852),
Eastern England: Norfolk (1966), Suffolk (1976),
South-east England: Hampshire (1969), Kent (1984), Oxfordshire , Surrey (1971), East Sussex (1984),
South-west England: Cornwall (1951), Devon (1979), Dorset (1935), Somerset (1885),
Wales: Gwynedd (1909),


Other Names

Previously Sterna fuscatus

Gaelic:	Welsh: Morwennol Fraith
Danish: Sodfarvet terne	Dutch: Bonte stern
Finnish: Nokitiira	French: Sterne fuligineuse
German: Rußseeschwalbe	Hungarian: Füstös csér
Icelandic: Möttulþerna	Irish:
Italian: Sterna scura	Norwegian: Sotterne
Polish: Rybitwa czarnogrzbieta	Portuguese: Andorinha-do-mar-escura
Spanish: Charrán sombrío	Swedish: Sottärna

For More Information...

Books and Monographs:

No books written recently

See Also:

Gough, G.A. et al. (1998) Patuxent Bird Identification Infocenter

Wikipedia entry

Recent sightings and information from BirdGuides.com

Find papers on Google Scholar

Find papers on Scirus


		BirdFacts home \| BTO Home Email: birdfacts@bto.org
These data should be cited as: Robinson, R.A. (2005) BirdFacts: profiles of birds occurring in Britain & Ireland (v1.22, Oct 2008). BTO Research Report 407, BTO, Thetford (http://www.bto.org/birdfacts)		© British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, UK. Terms and Conditions \| Privacy Statement Registered Charity Number 216652.
Pages maintained by Iain Downie & Rob Robinson