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White Tern (Gygis alba) Alternate name(s): "Angel Tern", "White Noddy", "Love Tern" Size: 30-33 cm; wing span 66-78 cm Body mass: ca. 110 g Wing loading [g/cm2]: 0.23-0.28

Australia: Family Group 10 Family Group 10 Table Brown Skua South Polar Skua Arctic Jaeger Pomarine Jaeger Long-tailed Jaeger Pacific Gull Kelp Gull Silver Gull Crested Tern Lesser Crested Tern Caspian Tern Australian Tern Gull-billed Tern White-fronted Tern Black-naped Tern Roseate Tern Antarctic Tern Arctic Tern Common Tern Little Tern Fairy Tern Whiskered Tern White-winged Black Tern Grey Ternlet White Tern Sooty Tern Bridled Tern Aleutian Tern Common Noddy Black Noddy Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description White Terns are medium-sized terns. They are unmistakable because of their all-white plumage all year round. Only the single outermost primary flight feather has a black edge. The dark-grey bill is long, slender and slightly upturned. Eyes, legs and feet are all black. Juveniles have off-white plumage, with grey eye stripes and nape of the neck. In-flight, the inner upperwings and the tips of the outermost primaries can be seen to be grey.

Taxonomy, classification See White Tern at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the White Tern is available HERE . There are four extant races of White Terns, which are birds of the tropical and subtropical oceans and islands. Around Australia only White Terns, race "candida", are found. They usually stay to the North and East of the Australian continent, including various islands in the Pacific Ocean. Occasionally they are found on the Australian continental shelf, including some coastal islands. All sightings on the Australian mainland were on the East coast, mostly along the eastern coastline of Cape York peninsula, the South coast of QLD and the North coast of NSW. White Terns are found on tropical islands and the open sea.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "candida" D. Hobday reports seeing White Terns, race "candida", on Lord Howe Island in August 2011. B. Hensen reports spotting White Terns, race "candida", on Lord Howe Island, e.g. near the wharf, in November 2014. M. Mearns reports spotting White Terns, race "candida", on Norfolk Island in January 2008.

Photos

Race "candida"

ADULT

PAIR

Near-frontal view of a pair of White Terns in a Norfolk Island pine (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Norfolk Island, January 2008]

Pair of White Terns (photo courtesy of D. Hobday)
[Lord Howe Island, August 2011]

Slightly different posture (photo courtesy of D. Hobday)
[Lord Howe Island, August 2011]

Pair of White Terns (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Wharf, Lord Howe Island, November 2014]

Sex unknown

Ventral view of a White Tern in flight (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Wharf, Lord Howe Island, November 2014]

White Tern banking to land in a tree (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Wharf, Lord Howe Island, November 2014]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Oct? - ?

Eggs: 1

Incubation period: ?

Fledging age: ?

Nest building: N/A

Incubation: ?

Dependent care: Female & male

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Tree fork

Material: N/A

Height above ground: ?

White Tern with its chick in the "nest", on a major branch of a Norfolk Island pine (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Wharf, Lord Howe Island, November 2014]

Lateral view of a White Tern protecting its chick (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Dorsal view of a White Tern protecting its chick (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Dorsal view of a White Tern protecting its chick (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Frontal view of a White Tern chick (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Near-frontal view of a White Tern chick; note the well-developed claws used by the chick to hold on to the branch that is its "nest" (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Near-lateral view of a White Tern chick (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Size: 52 x 36 mm

Colour: Creamy, with varying degrees of dark-brown speckling

Shape: Tapered oval

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