Lesser crested tern
| Lesser crested tern | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Sternidae |
| Genus: | Thalasseus |
| Species: | T. bengalensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Thalasseus bengalensis (Lesson, 1831) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Sterna bengalensis Lesson, 1831 |
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Sterna bengalensis Lesson, 1831
The lesser crested tern (Thalasseus bengalensis, syn. Sterna bengalensis) is a seabird of the tern family, Sternidae.
The genus name is from Ancient Greek Thalasseus, "fisherman" from thalassa, "sea". The specific bengalensis means "of Bengal", the type locality, historically referring to much of northern India and Bangladesh.
It breeds in subtropical coastal parts of the world mainly from the Red Sea across the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific, and Australia, with a significant population on the southern coast of the Mediterranean on two islands off the Libyan coast. Accidental breeding has also been reported in Italy and France. The Australian birds are probably sedentary, but other populations are migratory, wintering south to South Africa.
This bird has a number of geographical subspecies, differing mainly in size and minor plumage details:
The Mediterranean race is a rare vagrant to Europe, and has bred in pure or mixed pairs (with Sandwich tern) in Italy, Spain and England.
This species breeds in dense colonies on coasts and islands. It nests in a ground scrape and lays one to two (rarely three) eggs. Nesting behaviour is very similar to that of Sandwich terns, with predator avoidance by nesting in very dense colonies, and also (in race emigrata at least) by nesting in the late summer when predatory yellow-legged gulls have finished breeding and departed from the nesting area.
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Wikipedia