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In the West Indies, the eggs of roseate and sooty terns are believed to be aphrodisiacs, and are disproportionately targeted by egg collectors. [citation needed] Tern skins and feathers have long been used for making items of clothing such as capes and hats, and this became a large-scale activity in the second half of the nineteenth century ...
Rats will take tern eggs, and may even store large numbers in caches, [105] and the American mink is an important predator of hatched chicks, both in North America, and in Scotland where it has been introduced. [77] The red fox can also be a local problem. [106]
Other names for the species include angel tern and white noddy in English, and manu-o-Kū in Hawaiian. in the Cook Islands, it is known as the kakaia. The little white tern ( Gygis microrhyncha ), previously considered a subspecies of the white tern ( Gygis alba microrhyncha ), is now recognised as a separate species.
Breeding plumage Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden. The royal tern nests on island beaches or isolated beaches with limited predators. It lays one or two eggs, usually in a scrape, an area on the ground where a tern has made a small hole to lay its eggs. In some cases, tern eggs are laid directly on the ground, not in a scrape.
The greater crested tern is a large tern with a long (5.4–6.5 cm or 2.1–2.6 in) yellow bill, black legs, and a glossy black crest that is noticeably shaggy at its rear. The breeding adult of the nominate subspecies T. b. bergii is 46–49 cm (18–19.5 in) long, with a 125–130 cm (49–51 in) wing-span; this subspecies weighs 325–397 g ...
The little tern breeds in colonies on gravel or shingle coasts and islands. It lays two to four eggs on the ground. Like all white terns, it is defensive of its nest and young and will attack intruders. Like most other white terns, the little tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, either in coastal saline environments, or inland, along larger ...
The Sandwich tern is a medium-large tern with grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow-tipped black bill, and a shaggy black crest which becomes less extensive in winter with a white crown. Young birds bear grey and brown scalloped plumage on their backs and wings. It is a vocal bird. It nests in a ground scrape and lays one to three eggs.
The white-fronted tern (Sterna striata), also known as tara, sea swallow, [2] black-billed tern, kahawai bird, southern tern, [3] or swallow tail, [4] was first described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789. [3] A medium-sized tern with an all-white body including underwing and forked tail, with pale grey hues on the mantle and upper side of the ...