Sandwich tern

Appearance

This is a medium-large tern, 37–43 cm long with an 85–97 cm wingspan, which is unlikely to be confused within most of its range, although the South American race could be confused with the Elegant Tern.

The Sandwich tern's thin sharp bill is black with a yellow tip, except in the yellow or orange billed South American race. Its short legs are black. Its upperwings are pale grey and its underparts white, and this tern looks very pale in flight, although the primary flight feathers darken during the summer.

The lesser crested tern and elegant tern differ in having all-orange bills; lesser crested also differs in having a grey rump and marginally stouter bill, and elegant in having a slightly longer, slenderer bill. Chinese crested tern is the most similar to Sandwich, but has a reversal of the bill colour, yellow with a black tip; it does not overlap in range with Sandwich tern so confusion is unlikely.

In winter, the adult Sandwich Tern's forehead becomes white. Juvenile Sandwich Terns have dark tips to their tails, and a scaly appearance on their back and wings, like juvenile Roseate Terns.

Status

The Sandwich tern has an extensive global range estimated at 100,000–1,000,000 million square kilometres km².. It has a population estimated at 460,000–500,000 individuals. Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List. For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

The Sandwich tern is among the taxa to which the "Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds" applies. Parties to the Agreement are required to engage in a wide range of conservation actions which are describes in a detailed action plan. This plan should address key issues such as species and habitat conservation, management of human activities, research, education, and implementation.

Behavior

The Sandwich tern is a vocal bird; its call is a characteristic loud grating "kear-ik" or "kerr ink".

Reproduction

This species breeds in very dense colonies on coasts and islands, and exceptionally inland on suitable large freshwater lakes close to the coast. It nests in a ground scrape and lays one to three eggs. Unlike some of the smaller white terns, it is not very aggressive toward potential predators, relying on the sheer density of the nests—often only 20–30 cm apart and nesting close to other more aggressive species such as Arctic terns and black-headed gulls to avoid predation.

Food

Like all "Thalasseus" terns, the Sandwich tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, almost invariably from the sea. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favoured by Arctic tern. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.