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TERN (tern)
Sea
birds related to gulls but characteristically smaller and having
a forked tail Common clues: Beach bird; Gull's cousin; Little
gull; Sea swallow; Cousin of a gull; Shore bird; Aquatic bird;
Arctic bird; Bird with a forked tail Crossword
puzzle frequency:
4 times a year Frequency
in English language:
28705 / 86800 News: Wing
Tips: Arctic Terns prepare for 12,000-mile journey north Video:
Tern
tries to hatch a clam
Terns
are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a
subfamily Sterninae
of the gull family
Laridae. They are less closely related to the waders, auks and
skimmers. They have a worldwide distribution.
Arctic
Tern at nest on the Farne Islands, Northumberland.
Most
terns belong to the large genus Sterna,
with the other genera being small, though some authorities split
the genus Sterna
into several smaller
genera (see list, below).
Many
terns breeding in temperate zones are long-distance migrants, and
the Arctic Tern probably sees more daylight than any other
creature, since it migrates from its northern breeding grounds to
Antarctic waters. One Arctic Tern, ringed as a chick (not yet
able to fly) on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast in
eastern Britain in summer 1982, reached Melbourne, Australia in
October 1982, a sea journey of over 22,000 km (14,000 miles) in
just three months from fledging - an average of over 240 km per
day, and one of the longest journeys ever recorded for a bird.
They
are in general medium to large birds, typically with grey or
white plumage, often with black markings on the head. They have
longish bills and webbed feet. They are lighter bodied and more
streamlined than gulls, and look elegant in flight with long
tails and long narrow wings. Terns in the genus Sterna
have deeply forked
tails, those in Chlidonias
and Larosterna
shallowly forked
tails, while the noddies
(genera Anous,
Procelsterna, Gygis)
have unusual 'notched wedge' shaped tails, the longest tail
feathers being the middle-outer, not the central nor the
outermost.
Most
terns (Sterna
and the noddies) hunt
fish by diving, often hovering first, but the marsh terns
(Chlidonias)
pick insects off the surface of fresh water. Terns only glide
infrequently; a few species, notably Sooty Tern, will soar high
above the sea. Apart from bathing, they only rarely swim, despite
having webbed feet.
Terns
are generally long-lived birds, with several species now known to
live in excess of 25-30 years.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Tern".
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