General

Brown Noddy: Medium-sized tern, all brown except for white forehead blending to gray nape, and small white (lower) half-eye ring. Wedge shaped tail has small notch at tip. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has lighter brown wings, brown forehead and nape, and thin white forehead line.

Range and Habitat

Brown Noddy: Only breeding colony (protected) is in Dry Tortugas. Casual in Gulf of Mexico to Texas, and Gulf Stream to North Carolina outer banks.

Breeding and Nesting

Brown Noddy: Monogamous and colonial. Nest of old tree branches and seaweed, built by both sexes in cacti and bay cedar bushes about 12 feet above ground; one pink-buff egg marked with dark red brown. Incubation ranges from 35 to 38 days and is carried out by both sexes. Young stay in nest 20 days. Both sexes feed by regurgitation. Fledge at about 30 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Brown Noddy: Sometimes forages in small flocks. Eats small fish or squid picked from surface or caught by diving from surface. Does not plunge- dive. Swims.

Vocalization

Brown Noddy: "Kaark," "arrowk" or "eye-ak." In courtship flight "nek nek nek nek nek nekrrr."

Similar Species

Brown Noddy: Black Noddy is slightly smaller and darker. Sooty Tern is shorter-necked and black and white.