Roseate Tern   Sterna dugallii

Etymology :

• Sterna : Old English name “stearn” for terns , believed to be derived from Danish and Norwegian terne or Swedish tärna
• Dougallii : Named after Scottish collector Dr Peter McDougall (1777–1814)

 Vernacular Name: Mar: Gulabi Suray

Distribution in India: Resident & Summer visitor in India.

Distribution : Size of 33–43 cm; Weight of 90–125 g ; wingspan 72–80 cm. It is a very pale typical tern with very long tail streamers; forehead to nape is black; mantle and upperwing are very pale grey; tail is entirely white and deeply forked. outer webs on three outer primaries alone are black. It is immaculate white below, tinged pink early in breeding season. The legs and feet dull to bright red. It changes bill colour geographically, Red bill in India. The juvenile is heavily barred with black and/or brown crescents on mantle, mottled brownish grey on back and rump, bill and legs are dark. Subadult like non-breeding adult, but with white forehead and hindneck, speckled with brownish, and sooty-brown mark across crown and ear-coverts to nape; legs usually darker. Races are differentiated by wing length, and bill length and colour, but these parameters vary with latitude; and virtually all racial differences covered by variation within nominate dougallii.

 

Habitat: It Breeds on sandy, rocky or coral islands, often with dense vegetation in temperate areas, or barren islets in tropics; rarely breeds on saltmarsh

 

Food habits:  It feeds along tide-rips, in estuaries and several kilometres offshore eats. It eats small fish, insects and marine invertebrates.  It plunge-dives from greater heights and submerges more deeply. It also feeds by aerial-dipping for small fish driven to surface by predators, and contact-dips for small fish and invertebrates over shoals. It also scavenges behind fishing boats

 

Breeding habits: They breed  in Apr in India. They usually breed in mixed colonies. The colonies are often very dense, with inter-nest distances 40 cm. The nest is usually a bare scrape in sand or on coral rubble or bare rock; sometimes on vegetation, often without nest material. They usually lay two eggs, with tendency towards one in poor food years or in tropics. The Incubation period is 22–26 days. The chicks are mottled dark, with dark grey chin and throat and white to buffy white underparts, not speckled like most Sterna. They hide in vegetation near nest, until fledging at 23–30 days.