Greater Crested Tern
Thalasseus bergii· 鸥科(1 photos)
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Greater Crested Tern
44–48 cm; span 95 cm–1.05 m. Bill long, straw-yellow; legs black. Breeding Plumage: shaggy black cap separated from bill by white saddle; upperparts deep silver-grey. Non-breeding: duller; front of head white. Immature: bill greenish straw; forehead white; cap smutty; upperparts/shoulders heavily mottled; flight feathers, tail tips dusky grey; in flight, pale patch on upperwing contrasts with dark leading edge and wingtips. Singles, flocks: flies on rakish narrow wings with deep, easy beats: plunges; often offshore. Spectacular paired mating flights.
- Other name
- Greater Crested Tern, Great Crested Tern.
- Similar Species
- Lesser Crested Tern.
- Voice
- rasping ‘carrik’ or ‘kirrik’.
- Habitat
- coastal, offshore waters; beaches, bays, inlets, tidal rivers, salt swamps, lakes, larger rivers.
- Breeding
- Sept.–Jan. e. and s. Aust.; most months n. and w. Aust.
- Eggs
- 1 (rarely 2); stone-coloured, scrawled, blotched black, red–brown, umber, shadowy grey; in scrape or on rock; in colony (some thousands) on island.
- Range & Status
- coastal Aust., and Tas.; abundant in s. Aust. Sedentary; dispersive. Also Fiji–Philippines; s. and e. Asia; Red Sea–s. Africa, where known as Swift Tern.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Thalasseus bergii cristatus
