Sooty tern

The sooty tern was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766 as Sterna fuscata, bearing this name for many years until the genus Sterna was split up; it is now classified in the genus Onychoprion as Onychoprion fuscatus. The genus name is from ancient Greek , "claw" or "nail", and , "saw". The species name fuscatus is Latin for "dark". The sooty tern has little interspecific variation, but it is usually divided into six to eight allopatric subspecies. Some recent authors further subdivide the Indopacific population into up to eight subspecies altogether, but much of the variation is clinal. The affinities of eastern Pacific birds (including O. f. manutarus of Easter Island) are most strongly contested. Six subspecies are currently accepted by the IOC: • Onychoprion fuscatus infuscatus (Lichtenstein, 1823) – Sunda Islands and vicinity (included in O. f. nubilosus by IOC). • Onychoprion fuscatus kermadeci Mathews, 1916. – Kermadec Islands (included in O. f. serratus by IOC). File:Onychoprion fuscatus Ascension Island 7.jpg|O. f. fuscatus on Ascension Island Sterna fuscata.JPG|O. f. oahuensis on Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals, Hawaii Onychoprion fuscatus -Rodrigues Island, Indian Ocean -flying-8.jpg|O. f. nubilosus, Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean Sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus serrata) in flight Michaelmas Cay.jpg|O. f. serratus, Michaelmas Cay, Queensland == Description ==

; note the scaly appearance It is a medium-large tern, similar in size to the Sandwich tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) at long with an wingspan. The wings and tail are long, and it has black to dark blackish-brown upperparts and white underparts, and a white forehead. The tail is moderately deeply forked (more deeply forked than in Thalasseus terns, but less deeply than most Sterna terns), black, with white outer edges. It has black legs and bill. Juvenile sooty terns are grey-black above and below with narrow pale fringes on the upperpart feathers giving a scaly appearance above, and whitish on only the lower belly. The sooty tern is unlikely to be confused with any tern apart from the similarly dark-backed but smaller bridled tern (O. anaethetus). It is darker-backed than that species, and has a broader white forehead and no pale neck collar. The call is a loud piercing 'wide-a-wake', also cited as ; it also has a harsh alarm call . == Ecology ==

, home to more than a million sooty terns at its peak Sooty terns breed in colonies on rocky or coral islands. It nests in a ground scrape or hole and lays a single egg, typically in the afternoon. Although "two-egg clutches" have been reported, they probably occur when an egg from one nest rolls into another. It feeds by picking fish from the surface in marine environments, often in large flocks, and rarely comes to land except to breed, and can stay out to sea for 3 to 10 years. Due to the lack of oil in its feathers, it cannot float, and spends that entire time on the wing. This bird is migratory and dispersive, wintering more widely through the tropical oceans. It has very marine habits compared to most terns; sooty terns are generally found inland only after severe storms. The Field Museum, for example, has a male specimen which was found exhausted on August 2, 1933 on the slopes of Mount Cameroon above Buea, about ASL, after foul weather had hit the Gulf of Guinea. This species is a rare vagrant to western Europe, although a bird was present at Cemlyn Bay, Wales for 11 days in July 2005. It is also not normally found on the Pacific coasts of the Americas due to its pelagic habits. At Baja California, where several nesting locations are offshore, it can be seen more frequently, whereas for example only two individuals have ever been recorded on the coast of El Salvador - one ring recovered in 1972, and a bird photographed on October 10, 2001 at Lake Olomega which was probably blown there by a storm. Hurricanes can also devastate small breeding colonies, as has been surmised for example for the sooty tern nesting sites on cays off the San Andrés Islands of Colombia. An exceptionally common bird, the sooty tern is not considered threatened by the IUCN. == In culture ==

Colloquially, it is sometimes known as "wideawake" or "wideawake tern"; an onomatopoeic name derived from its call 'wide-a-wake', In most of Polynesia its name is manutara or similar, literally "tern-bird", though it might be better rendered in English as "the tern" or "common tern". This refers to the fact that wherever Polynesian seafarers went on their long voyages, they usually would find these birds in astounding numbers. It is also known as kaveka in the Marquesas Islands, where dishes using its eggs are a delicacy. On Easter Island, this species and the spectacled tern (O. lunatus) are collectively known as manutara. The manutara played an important role in the tangata manu ("birdman") ritual: whichever hopu (champion) could retrieve the first manutara egg from Motu Nui islet would become that year's tangata manu; his clan would receive prime access to resources, especially seabird eggs. == Gallery ==

Image:Sooty tern flying.JPG|Sooty tern colony on Tern Island (French Frigate Shoals) Image:Sooty Tern chick.JPG|Chick on Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals Image:BFAL SOTE shade.JPG|Sooty tern chicks seeking shade under the shadow of a young black-footed albatross Image:Frigate sooty.JPG|A chick is snatched by a predatory great frigatebird File:Onychoprion fuscatus -Phillip Island, Norfolk Island group, Australia -egg-8.jpg|Egg == References ==