Bird name:

Sooty Tern

Sterna fuscata

Order

CHARADRIIFORMES

Family

Gulls, Terns, Skimmers (Laridae)

Code 4

SOTE

Code 6

ONYFUS

ITIS

176894

Breeding Location:

Coastal, sea, Islands, sandy or rocky, Beaches, coastal

Breeding Type:

Colonial

Breeding Population:

Declining slightly, Common in coastal range, uncommon inland.

Egg Color:

White to buff with brown, lavender or black marks

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

No prepared nest. Leaves.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Sooty Tern: Medium-sized tern with long wings and deeply forked tail, black crown, nape, and upperparts, and a broad triangular white forehead patch. Underparts are white; upper tail is black with white outer edges. Sexes are similar. Winter adult has paler crown and nape. Juvenile is dark sooty-brown overall with small white chevrons on back and wings; lower belly and underwing coverts are white.

Range and Habitat

Sooty Tern: Largely pelagic, comes ashore only to breed. Breeding colony on Dry Tortugas, Florida. Florida breeding population spends most of its nonbreeding time off West Africa. Also nests on islets off Louisiana and Texas. Regular (nonbreeding) in summer north to North Carolina.

Breeding and Nesting

Sooty Tern: Simple scrape nest on ground, built by both sexes, lined with leaves; single white to buff egg with brown, lavender, or black markings. Incubation ranges from 27 to 30 days and is carried out by both sexes; Chick fed by both parents, fledges at 56 to 63 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Sooty Tern: Skims water, takes fish (especially flying fish) and small aquatic animals on the wing. Feeds offshore with predatory fish that drive bait fish to the surface. Feeds extensively at night.

Vocalization

Sooty Tern: high nasal barking or laughing "ka-wake" or "ke weh-de-wek," or "wacky-wack."

Similar Species

Sooty Tern: Bridled Tern is smaller, lighter in build, narrower wings, longer tail, more buoyant and lighter flight, alights on flotsam but rarely on the sea. Bridled Tern's white forehead patch extends behind the eye.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Belly

The ventral part of the bird, or the area between the flanks on each side and the crissum and breast. Flight muscles are located between the belly and the breast.

Crown

The crown is the top part of the birds head.

Nape

Also called the hindneck or collar, it is the back of the neck where the head joins the body.

Pelagic

The pelagic is a type of bird whose habitat is on the open ocean rather than in a coastal region or on inland bodies of water (lakes, rivers). An example of a pelagic bird is the blacklegged kittiwake.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America