Africa Wild

324. Greater Crested Tern, Swift Tern Thalasseus bergii (Geelbeksterretjie)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Description
Intermediate in size (43-48 cm.) between Caspian Tern and Sandwich Tern. It has a large yellow or greenish yellow (not orange) slightly downcurved bill. Black cap that crests behind the head, bright white underparts, and gray back and wings. Black legs and feet with yellow soles. Sexes are alike.
Juvenile is barred dark blackish brown and has a dusky yellow-olive bill.

Distribution
Occurs along the coasts of the west-central Pacific, south-east Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. In southern Africa it is common along the entire coastline of the region.


Habitat
Inshore water, islands, large bays and estuaries.

Movements and migrations
After breeding, it departs from the colonies and heads south and east to the coastline of the Indian Ocean, travelling back again at the onset of the following breeding season.

Diet
Mainly eats pelagic schooling fish, doing most of its foraging within sight of land, plunge-diving or dipping into the sea to catch prey.

Breeding
Monogamous, usually nesting in colonies of roughly 500-3000 pairs, maintaining a pair bond year round. The nest is a shallow scrape in flat, open sand, either unlined or with a thin lining of stones and cuttlefish (Sepia) bones, or alternatively it may use the roof of a building. Egg-laying season is from January-September, peaking from February-June. The female lays a single egg, rarely two, which is incubated by both sexes for about 21-30 days. The chicks are brooded and fed by both parents, leaving the nest after about three days, after which it forms crèches along with other chicks, fledging at about 38-40 days old and becoming fully independent roughly four months later.

Call
Adult's call is a harsh kree-eck; juvenile gives a thin vibrating whistle.

Status
Common resident and local migrant.

324. Greater Crested Tern, Swift Tern Thalasseus bergii

© Flutterby
South Coast

© Michele Nel
Boulders

© Michele Nel
Swift Tern and Caspian Terns, Walvis Bay, Namibia

© nan
Lamberts Bay

© Peter Connan
Maphelane, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal

© Michele Nel
Mouille Point, Cape Town

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
Avian Demography Unit
Wikipedia

326. Sandwich Tern Thalasseus sandvicensis, formerly Sterna sandvicensis (Grootsterretjie)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Non-breeding

Description
The Sandwich Tern has a height of 37-43 cm and weighs around 230 g. The Sandwich Tern is a medium-large tern with light grey upperparts with blackish wing tips. The rump and rather short forked tail is white, a thin yellow-tipped black bill and a shaggy black crest which becomes less extensive in winter with a white crown. Black legs. Feet have yellow soles.
Breeding (summer) adult: forehead, crown and nape black. Loose long feathers at the nape seem to form a crest in the wind or when excited.
Non-breeding (winter) adult: black areas on head turn white and speckledy-grey on the crest. This happens as early as June.
Juvenile: speckled blackish-brown on mantle and wings, brown on forehead, crown and nape; white elsewhere. Bill is sometimes all black. Juvenile Sandwich Terns have dark tips to their tails, and a scaly appearance on their back and wings, like juvenile Roseate Terns.
Similar species: Much larger than Common Tern. Its back is paler than other similar sized Terns. Could be confused with Gull-billed Tem which has a short, stubby bill, but Sandwich Tem shows a white, not grey rump and a much more forked tail.

Distribution
Breeds from western Europe to the Caspian Sea and North America, heading south in the non-breeding season to South America, the Arabian Sea and the coast of Africa. It is common along the coastline of southern Africa, especially in Namibia and western South Africa, generally preferring
Europe, Atlantic coasts of North and South America. European birds winter on the west coast of Africa.
It is a seasonally abundant nonbreeding visitor to southern Africa; c. 60 000 pairs breed in northwestern Europe. The nonbreeding range of this population is along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Africa and around the Cape along the Indian Ocean coast as far east as Mozambique.
The populations breeding along the northern Black and eastern Caspian seas have the Mediterranean and Arabian seas, respectively, as their main nonbreeding areas, and do not normally visit southern Africa.



Habitat
Mixed sandy and rocky shores. In southern Africa, it comes to land only to roost, usually with other terns or gulls, and may then bathe or fish
in estuaries and coastal lakes. It is almost exclusively marine; inland records are exceptional. It uses all coastal habitats but favours sheltered bays and estuaries, seldom foraging far from shore. It occurs almost exclusively within the continental shelf.

Movements and migrations
Palearctic breeding migrant, travelling down the west coast of Africa, getting to the Western Cape in September, after which it travels east, reaching Mozambique in December. It departs the earliest in the east, in late January and early February, while it leaves Namibia in April.

Diet
It mainly eats pelagic fish, crustaceans and molluscs, foraging by flying over the sea with its head pointed downwards; if prey is spotted, it momentarily hovers before plunge-diving from 5-10 m above the water.

Breeding
Technically southern Africa forms part of its non-breeding grounds, however in 2002 birds in the Western Cape were reported performing courtship displays, such as synchronised flying, calling in flight and allo-feeding, in the period from February to May at Koeberg, Dassen Island and Shaapen Island. At Robben Island a pair were reported to feed a chick; all this suggests that Sandwich Tern either bred or attempted to breed in southern Africa in 2002.
Colonial nesters, the nest is a ground scrape and they lay 1-3 eggs.

Call
The Sandwich Tern is a vocal bird; its call is a characteristic loud grating kear-ik or kerr ink. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common summer visitor. The Sandwich Tern is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.

326. Sandwich Tern Thalasseus sandvicensis (Grootsterretjie)

© Peter Connan
Maphelane, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal

© Mel
Adult breeding

© Mel
Adult breeding

© Mel
Adult breeding

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
ARKive

335. Little Tern Sternula albifrons (Kleinsterretjie)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Description
22–28 cm long, 47–55 cm wingspan. A slender bird with a streamlined body and narrow, sharp-pointed wings. The bill is straight, thin and sharp.
Breeding plumage: White, triangular forehead, black cap and a tapering stripe between eye and bill. Pale grey upperparts and white neck and underparts and a forked, short tail. The outer primaries are slightly darker grey, and a white line runs along their upper edge, with a thin black line visible across the bottom edge. In flight, a thin black band is visible on the edge of the wing. Breeding birds have a yellow beak with a black tip and also yellow-orange legs and feet.
Non-breeding birds have black/dark-grey bills and duller orange-brown legs. Also, the black cap is smaller and the forehead turns more grey-white. Dark spots on the back of the crown merge with a dark band which extends from in front of the eyes to the back of the neck. The rump and tail are pale grey, and the tail is less forked.
The juvenile is very similar to the non-breeding adult, but the black band on the head is narrower and duller. The forehead and crown are washed with brown, while narrow white scaling and brown, U-shaped markings are distinctly visible on the shoulders and the back. The tail is marked with a thin dark band. The bill of the juvenile is dark brown with a blackish tip.
Similar species: This species differs from Damara Tern by its shorter, straight bill and white (not grey) tail. In breeding plumage distinguished from Damara Tern by well defined white forehead, yellow legs and black-tipped yellow bill. In non-breeding or immature plumage by darker grey back and in flight by dark leading edge of wings contrasting with pale secondaries.

Distribution
The Little Tern is a migratory bird and the species of tern that has the most inland distribution. Breeding populations can be found over most of Europe; western and northern Africa; central, southern and eastern Asia as well as in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. One colony can be found in Hawaii. Migratory birds range at the coast of South Africa and Mozambique with scarcer occurrence at the western coast, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian west coast, most of the waters in the south-east of Asia, Australasia and New Zealand. Breeding birds leave the northern parts from late July and have a layover to moult before continuing their travels south. It is common only along the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal where up to 300 birds may gather at roosts on sandbanks or islands. It occurs sparsely along the southern and southwestern coasts of South Africa and is a vagrant elsewhere in southern Africa.

Habitat
It generally prefers estuaries, coastal lagoons and salt pans where it is surrounded by saline or fresh water with smaller fish that can be caught without having to perform extensive foraging flights.

Movements and migrations
It starts to arrive in southern Africa in August, with numbers peaking from December to February before it departs in April and May.

Diet
The Little Tern mostly feeds on small fish and small crustaceans as well as insects, worms and mollusc. It fishes in shallow water, often with oncoming tide or in brackish lagoons and saltmarsh creeks. doing most of its foraging by flying upwind, 5-8 m above water, searching for prey which it plunge-dives for. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.

Breeding
In Europe and Asia between May and July, in Africa around April, in Australia from April to January (Northern Territory), otherwise from late August to about January / February. It usually breeds in solitary pairs or small groups usually up to 15 pairs (rarely in larger colonies) on grave or shingle coasts and islands where it lays two to four eggs on the ground. Both adults incubate the clutch for a period of 17 to 22 days The time of breeding might be timed to coincide with a peak in fish abundance. Like all white terns, it will defend its nest and young and will attack intruders.

Call
Loud and distinctively creaking. Listen to Bird Calls

Status
Non-breeding summer visitor. Despite the fact that the little terns lost lots of its habitats (particularly in Europe) due to human intervention and pollution and therefore facing declining numbers it’s categorized as least concern on the ICUN Red List.

335. Little Tern Sternula albifrons (Kleinsterretjie)









Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
Oiseaux net

334. Damara Tern Sternula balaenarum (Damarasterretjie)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae


Description
23 cm. Small, fast flying grey and white Tern, stumpier looking than Little Tern with shorter tail. Uniform upperparts. Pale grey back and grey tail. Downcurved bill. Yellowish to dusky legs and a black beak.
In breeding plumage the species has an all black cap, which extends onto the nape (back of the neck).
Non-breeding birds have a white forehead and crown.
Juveniles have brown barring on the upperparts, a buff crown, a dark band through the eye and across the nape, grey flight feathers, and brown wing-coverts with dark edging.
Similar species: Similar in appearance to the Little Tern, the Damara Tern can be distinguished in breeding plumage by its complete black cap and longer, slightly decurved black bill which does not turn yellow during the breeding season; the Little Tern has a dark-tipped yellow bill, and white rump and tail.

Distribution
Occurs along the western coast of Africa. The Damara Tern is an intra-African migrant, known to breed only in South Africa and Namibia. In South Africa, small, isolated breeding populations at Alexander Bay, N Cape, from Struisbaai to De Mond, W Cape, and in Algoa Bay, E Cape, in breeding season, but no proof of breeding. In Namibia, there are c. 12 000 adults between the Kunene River and Sandwich Harbour and c. 1450 birds south to the Orange River. Most common along Namibian coast, small breeding population on south Cape coast.

Habitat
Arid coastlines. It generally prefers arid desert shores, especially with sheltered bays and reefs, while it mainly breeds on gravel plains between dunes and on salt pans.

Movements
Mainly an intra-African breeding migrant. In winter, the majority of the population migrates to west Africa (Cameroon to Ghana). A breeding endemic, present September-October to April.

Diet
Mainly eats fish and aquatic invertebrates, doing most of its foraging over shallow water, repeatedly plunge-diving from 3-8 m up.

Breeding
Monogamous, either nesting solitarily or in loose colonies, performing a courtship display in which the male brings fish to the female. Breeding sites mostly inland along Namibian coast, 1-2 km from shore. Eggs are laid on bare ground or in shallow scrapes on featureless gravel plains, in wide troughs between sand-dunes, at dry saltpans, on rocky ledges or at rehabilitated diamond mines. Egg-laying season is from October-June, peaking from October-December. It lays a single egg, which is incubated by both sexes for 17-30, usually 18-22 days. The chick is mainly brooded by the female while the male provides the food. The vulnerable chick is well camouflaged to match its surroundings, with white below and fawn above, speckled with black. The chick leaves the nest at just two days old, crouching motionless to blend in with its surroundings and so avoid detection by predators. Fledging occurs around 20 days later, at which point juveniles form flocks on the beach, but the chick is dependent on the adult birds for another two and a half months.

Call
High pitched tsit-tsit repeated several times, and tit-tit.

Status
Uncommon, near endemic resident. This species is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN list, owing to its moderately small population; breeding sites threatened by disturbance. Previously considered Endangered in Namibia, it is now thought to be Near-threatened there, as its population is now somewhat stable. However it is still Endangered in South Africa, where disturbance and urbanisation have already resulted in the loss of two colonies.

334. Damara Tern Sternula balaenarum (Damarasterretjie)


Breeding plumage

Fun fact The species name balaenarum is derived from the Latin for 'whale' and refers to Walvis Bay, from where the species was first described.

Links:
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
Sabap2

327. Common Tern Sterna hirundo (Gewone sterretjie)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Laridae

© Mel
Adult breeding

Description
Lengths of about 34 to 37 cm. It has a sharp, thin bill which is red and sports a dark tip in breeding season. Otherwise it’s dark with an ivory tip. The legs are red and relatively long. The wingtips are extended to the the tail.
Breeding adults have pale grey upperparts, very pale grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill that can be mostly red with a black tip, or all black, depending on the subspecies. Itss upperwings are pale grey, but as the summer wears on, the dark feather shafts of the outer flight feathers become exposed, and a grey wedge appears on the wings. The rump and tail are white, and on a standing bird the long tail extends no further than the folded wingtips (unlike the Arctic and Roseate Terns in which the tail protrudes beyond the wings).
There are no significant differences between the sexes.
In non-breeding adults the forehead and underparts become white, the bill is all black or black with a red base, and the legs are dark red or black. The upperwings have an obvious dark area at the front edge of the wing, the carpal bar. Terns that have not bred successfully may start moulting into non-breeding adult plumage from June, but late July is more typical, with the moult suspended during migration.
Juvenile Common Terns have pale grey upperwings with a dark carpal bar. The crown and nape are brown, and the forehead is ginger, wearing to white by autumn. The upperparts are ginger with brown and white scaling, and the tail lacks the adult's long outer feathers. Birds in their first post-juvenile plumage, which normally remain in their wintering areas, resemble the non-breeding adult, but have a duskier crown, dark carpal bar, and often very worn plumage. By their second year, most young terns are either indistinguishable from adults, or show only minor differences such as a darker bill or white forehead.
Similar species: It differs from Arctic and Antarctic tems by its longer bill and legs and, in non-breeding plumage, its greyish (not white) rump and tail. The Common Tern is easily confused with the Arctic Tern but when on the ground stands up taller than the Arctic. On flying birds the wing of Arctic Tern when seen against the light is really quite translucent whereas in Common only the inner primaries are translucent.
Compared with White-cheeked Tern it has a paler rump and tail, which contrast with the back.
The probably most helpful feature to separate the breeding Common Tern from the Arctic Tern is the bill. The Common Tern has a fairly long somewhat decurved orange-red beak with a clear black tip and the Arctic Tern has a shorter blood-red beak. And it differs from Arctic Tern by its darker outerwing.
Roseate Tern has a longer, heavier bill, paler grey upperparts, and ealrier in thze breeding season, conspicuously pinkish underparts.

Distribution
Breeds from North America through western Europe to Asia, heading south in the non-breeding season to the Caribbean, South America, south-western Europe, South-East Asia, Australia and the entire coastline of Africa. The Common Tern is an abundant, nonbreeding Palearctic migrant to the coasts of southern Africa; few occur inland.

Habitat
Open sea and coastal lakes. It frequents marine coasts, river estuaries and coastal lakes. It occurs mostly over the inner continental shelf, and seldom beyond the shelfbreak. Some roost at sea at night, but most roost on coastal sandspits, points, estuaries, islands or artificial structures.

Movements and migrations
It is strongly migratory, heading south in the non-breeding season (August/September to April/May) to the Caribbean, South America, south-western Europe, South-East Asia, Australia and the entire coastline of Africa. Juveniles remain all year. It migrates to southern Africa from two distinct parts of the breeding range: most birds are of populations which breed in northwestern Europe; the remainder are of birds breeding along the Black Sea coast of the Ukraine. Birds originating from the Baltic Sea arrive in August and September, while the less prolific east European birds arrive about two months later. Both subspecies leave in the period from February-May, departing in large flocks in the evening.

Diet
Food is primarily small marine fish supplemented with crustaceans, insects and polychaete worms; doing most of its foraging by flying over water while looking downwards; if prey is spotted it momentarily hovers before plunge-diving to catch the animal.

Breeding
Lays two to four eggs. Very defensive of its nest and young and will attack humans and other large predators, but unlike the more aggressive Arctic Tern rarely hits the intruder, usually swerving off at the last moment.

Call
Kik-kik and kee-arh. Quiet kip when foraging. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common summer visitor to all coasts; regularly overwinters. Not threatened, in fact it is the most widespread and second most abundant tern in the world, although its numbers have decreased at many breeding sites and its range is contracting.

327. Common Tern Sterna hirundo (Gewone sterretjie)

© Michele Nel
Mouille Point, Cape Town

© Mel
Adult breeding

© Dewi
Adult breeding

© Dewi
Adult breeding

© Dewi
Adult breeding

© Dewi
Juvenile

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
Wikipedia