Fairy tern

Last updated

Fairy tern
Sterna nereis - Little Swanport.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
Genus: Sternula
Species:
S. nereis
Binomial name
Sternula nereis
Gould, 1843
Subspecies

Sternula nereis davisae
Sternula nereis exsul
Sternula nereis nereis

Contents

Synonyms

Sterna nereis

The fairy tern (Sternula nereis) is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is "Critically Endangered". Fairy terns live in colonies along the coastlines and estuaries of Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia, feeding largely on small, epipelagic schooling fishes, breeding in areas close to their feeding sites. They have a monogamous mating system, forming breeding pairs in which they mate, nest, and care for offspring.

There are three subspecies:

The three subspecies are distinguished by geographical range, and slight morphological differences. [2] Gene flow between subspecies is little to none. [3]

Description

The fairy tern is a small tern with a white body and light bluish-grey wings. A small black patch extends no further than the eye and not as far as the bill. In the breeding plumage both the beak and the legs are yellowish-orange. During the rest of the year the black crown is lost, being mostly replaced by white feathers, and the beak becomes black at the tip and the base. The sexes look alike and the plumage of immature birds is similar to the non-breeding plumage. The total length of the fairy tern is about 25 cm (10 in). [4]

Status

Formerly classified as a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN, [5] recent research shows that its numbers have been decreasing rapidly throughout its range; the New Zealand subspecies has been on the brink of extinction for decades. The fairy tern was consequently uplisted to Vulnerable status in 2008. [5] The New Zealand fairy tern has numerous breeding areas, largely incorporating the upper-north region of the North Island. In 2011, there were only about 42 known individuals. With a breeding program in place by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, the population was estimated in 2020 at 40. [6] Since then, their breeding sites have been reduced to only four consistent locations, limited to the South of the Northland Peninsula. [7] In 2023, less than 40 individuals and 9 breeding pairs of the New Zealand fairy tern remained, the subspecies becoming a high priority for conservation. [7]

Behaviour

Feeding

Fairy terns are surface plungers, feeding on fish that shoal just under the water surface. To forage, fairy terns hover between five and fifteen metres above the water to search for prey, then carrying out a descending aerial dive beak-first towards the water. [8] They then spread their wings and tails just above the water surface, submerging only their bills and heads to catch their prey. [8] This foraging technique means that they catch prey no deeper than around eight centimetres under the water surface, allowing them to make use of shallow waters such as tidal pools. [8] Fairy terns seldom go far out to sea but are often to be seen where predatory fish are feeding on shoals of small fish.

Fairy tern diets consist predominantly of pelagic schooling fishes. [9] [10] For instance, Australian fairy terns mostly eat blue sprat, hardyheads, and garfishes. [10] Similarly, New Zealand fairy terns have a diet made up of common estuarine fish, namely gobies and flounders, responsible for most of their consumed biomass, as well as shrimps, comprising up to 21% of their diet. [8] Little research has been done on the diet of New Caledonian fairy terns, but given their foraging technique, it is likely that they too forage for small marine fish that school just below the water surface. Fairy terns also consume crustaceans, molluscs and some plant material. [4] Diets may vary according to location, time of day, developmental stage and breeding season. [9]

Breeding

Breeding takes place in the spring in colonies on sheltered beaches on the mainland or on offshore islands. The nest is just above high-water mark and is a scrape in the sand. Fairy terns have a monogamous mating system, forming pair bonds in which they provision food, mate, nest, and care for offspring. [2] One or two eggs are laid and both parents share the incubation and care of the chicks and have occasionally been seen providing post-fledging parental care. [5] Breeding success is low. [11] [10]

Breeding Season

Fairy terns breed during spring, with courtship beginning in September, and nesting occurring largely from November to February. [2] Their breeding season largely overlaps with the spawning season for much of their prey, [9] allowing fairy terns to make use of a higher abundance of food that is required for courtship provisioning, energy for breeding, and feeding offspring. Females breed at around three years old, while males breed from age two. [2] Each year, fairy terns develop breeding plumage, where their bills, legs, and feet become brighter and darker, and the dark colouration on their heads extends from forehead to nape. [2] This plumage signals sexual maturity, and elicits the courtship process.

Courtship

After developing breeding plumage, fairy terns begin the courtship process. During pair-formation, fairy terns exhibit ritualised courtship behaviours. Courtship displays are typically exhibited by male fairy terns to attract females during mate selection. Fairy tern courtship behaviours include aerial displays as well as ground displays. Aerial displays may be social, involving cooperative exhibitions of dynamic flight patterns. [10] Ground displays involve catching and exhibiting fish, to signal foraging ability. As observed in many avian species, courtship displays function to indicate mate quality in order to facilitate reproductive success. [12] In fairy terns, courtship displays are essential to breeding, which will not occur without them. [10] Another key element of courtship in Fairy Terns is the exchange of fish, which is initially essential before copulation can occur in breeding pairs. [10] [2] Males will provision food to the female, which persists throughout the breeding season. Male provisioning behaviour is thought to function to demonstrate the parental ability of the male in courtship. [10]

Pair Bonds

Following courtship, fairy terns form pair bonds. [10] [2] [7] In these pairs, fairy terns prospect potential nesting sites within the colony territory. Once chosen, pairs will frequently visit their nesting habitat, feed together, and mate frequently. High levels of fidelity are generally observed. Although fairy terns are typically observed forming single pair bonds during the mating season, multiple mating pairs and copulation have been observed in Australian fairy terns. [10] Here, males will typically guard their partner during breeding, in attempt to prevent polyandrous copulation outside of their breeding pair. Fairy terns stay in their breeding pairs throughout nesting, both investing in the biparental care of chicks and eggs together.

Nesting

Tara iti (New Zealand fairy tern) chicks in nest. DOC Fairy Tern photos 11.jpg
Tara iti (New Zealand fairy tern) chicks in nest.
Fairy tern eggs camouflage with shells. DOC Fairy Tern photos 04.jpg
Fairy tern eggs camouflage with shells.

Fairy terns nest in low lying sand, eggs and young camouflaging with surrounding shells, shingle or gravel. They construct their nests by scraping the sand with their legs, rotating in a circle until they have dug sand from all directions. [2] Fairy terns may create several nests before their final selection of nest choice. [10] Fairy terns have been observed to nest in different location types, including seaside bays, estuary mouths, sheltered lagoons and saltwater lakes. [10] [2] [11] Given their gregarious nature, nest selection is influenced by social facilitation, where the observation of nesting success in conspecifics of their colony will direct fairy terns to also nest in that location. [14] Colonies will often abandon nest location once the breeding season ends, driven by changing availability of food, predators, and vegetation. [10]

Nest location may be related to feeding site, where fairy terns will select areas that allow them to easily and quickly access food for their young while nesting. [15] Like many other terns, fairy terns often nest in sandy beach areas with little vegetation, allowing them to detect predators easily, and nest close to feeding sites. However, too little vegetation leaves fairy terns with insufficient shelter, making them more vulnerable to weather and avian predation. [2] So, choice of nest site is influenced by evolutionary trade-offs pressured by a need for safety and food. Another key aspect of nest site selection is an abundance of shell cover, which fairy terns will preferentially choose. This preference seemingly functions to increase camouflage and avoid predator detection, given their colouration which likely evolved to matched the white, orange and black shelled areas in which they nest. [2]

During nesting, female fairy terns rarely leave the nesting site. [10] Males supply their partner with food throughout the nesting and incubation periods, though this behaviour decreases over time until the eggs hatch, when provisioning increases once more to care for the offspring. Male provisional feeding gives the female nutritional support, allowing her to invest more in nesting and attend the eggs. Males may experience a decrease in body mass during this period, given the energy expense of provisioning behaviour. [2] This food provisioning behaviour, typically carried out by males, is therefore important in increasing breeding success. [2]

Breeding Success

Fairy tern clutch size varies from one to three eggs, [10] [2] [16] with clutch size of one or two being most common. Larger broods typically occur with more experienced pairs, and only when resources are abundant. [10] The second egg is typically laid one to four days after the first. [2] The incubation period lasts approximately twenty-two days. [10] [16]

Studies on New Caledonian fairy terns find breeding success to be quite low. [11] [16] [17] Chick mortality may occur due to several factors including predation by other avian species, tidal flooding, egg failure, adverse weather and parental desertion. [16] [18] Breeding success is also hindered by nest disturbance from conspecifics nesting nearby. [18] The “grieving parent” syndrome has been observed in New Zealand fairy terns, where parents who experience offspring failure will kill the chicks of a nearby nest. [2] Surveys of New Caledonian fairy terns find breeding success to be highly impacted by adverse weather, where almost all nests across 2 years were destroyed by weathering. [11] In 2020, breeding success in New Caledonian fairy terns was less than 15%. [16] The low breeding success of New Caledonian fairy terns is similar to that of the endangered New Zealand fairy tern. [17] Further research is required to reliably establish breeding success in the Australian and New Zealand subspecies, though it is thought to be very low given their high vulnerability to tidal flooding and predation. [10] [18] However, adult survival is considerably higher, where fairy terns are able to mate for multiple breeding seasons, giving hope to the continuation of their species. [10]

Parental Behaviour

As observed in other tern species, both male and female fairy terns contribute equally towards parental care. [2] In their pair bonds, both males and females feed their offspring. Males continue to provide food to the female as well as young. When there is only one chick, males feed the chick more than the female, and at night, the females care for the chicks. [2] Chick feeding rates vary considerably between nests, and decrease with disturbance as parents engage more in defensive behaviour. [18] Parents are highly attentive towards chicks particularly in the first few days after hatching. [10] [19] Chicks are not left unattended until at least fourteen days of age; fledgling occurs at approximately day twenty-three. [2]

Parental behaviour is influenced by a variety of components. Increased wind speed is associated with increased time spent with young, [2] presumably to increase protection to favour offspring survival. Feeding of young occurs the most frequently approximately three hours past low tide, while foraging occurs at high tide. [2]

Increased aggression, both conspecific and intraspecific, is observed when parents are with young. [2] [18] In defence, to protect their offspring, fairy terns will display aggressive behaviours towards perceived potential predators (mammalian, avian, and human), as well as intruding conspecifics. [2] [18] This aggressive behaviour will be exhibited upon intrusion within seventy-five metres of the nest site. [2] Parents will also extend their wings over chicks to provide protection to young. [19]

Threats

Predation

Fairy terns are predated on by small mammals, which may eat adults, chicks and eggs. [7] [20] [2] In Australia, the presence of semi-wild cats threatens the already declining population of Australian fairy terns. [20] Likewise, in New Zealand, non-native invasive mammalian species including rats, mustelids, hedgehogs and cats, predate on fairy terns. [7] [2] As with fairy terns, non-native mammalian predation is a common issue for vulnerable endemic birds in New Zealand, and is a key focus for conversation.

Fairy tern chicks and eggs are also at risk of avian predation. [16] [11] Specifically, birds including harrier hawks and black backed gulls will eat chicks and eggs. [7] [2] The only defence against predation for fairy tern chicks is their cryptic colouration, which allows them to camouflage with seashells that surround their nests. [2] [19] This contributes to a high level of chick mortality that threatens the decreasing population of fairy terns, particularly for the endangered New Zealand and New Caledonian subspecies. [17]

Human Disturbance

Human disturbance poses a great threat to fairy terns. Particularly during the breeding season, human activity puts fairy terns at risk of further population decrease, disrupting nesting and breeding behaviours to ultimately reduce breeding success. [2] [11] The New Zealand Department of Conservation warns of the danger of human activation including dog walking, drone use, bonfires, vehicular beach use, horse riding, and recreational beach activities in fairy tern breeding areas. These disturbances have been known to not only disrupt breeding behaviours, but to scare fairy terns away from their nests, causing fairy terns to abandon their eggs, leaving them vulnerable to predation as well as embryo death due to thermal exposure. [7] For this reason, conversation efforts are being made to reduce human disturbance towards fairy terns.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tern</span> Family of seabirds

Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also includes several genera of gulls and the skimmers (Rynchops). They are slender, lightly built birds with long, forked tails, narrow wings, long bills, and relatively short legs. Most species are pale grey above and white below with a contrasting black cap to the head, but the marsh terns, the black-bellied tern, the Inca tern, and some noddies have dark body plumage for at least part of the year. The sexes are identical in appearance, but young birds are readily distinguishable from adults. Terns have a non-breeding plumage, which usually involves a white forehead and much-reduced black cap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctic tern</span> Bird that breeds in the Arctic and sub-Arctic and migrates to the Antarctic

The Arctic tern is a tern in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates along a convoluted route from its northern breeding grounds to the Antarctic coast for the southern summer and back again about six months later. Recent studies have shown average annual round-trip lengths of about 70,900 km (44,100 mi) for birds nesting in Iceland and Greenland and about 48,700 km (30,300 mi) for birds nesting in the Netherlands. These are by far the longest migrations known in the animal kingdom. The Arctic tern nests once every one to three years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common tern</span> Migratory seabird in the family Laridae with circumpolar distribution

The common tern is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black. There are several similar species, including the partly sympatric Arctic tern, which can be separated on plumage details, leg and bill colour, or vocalisations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little tern</span> Species of bird

The little tern is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was first described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Sterna albifrons. It was moved to the genus Sternula when the genus Sterna was restricted to the larger typical terns. The genus name Sternula is a diminutive of Sterna, 'tern', while the specific name albifrons is from Latin albus, 'white', and frons, 'forehead'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roseate tern</span> Bird in the family Laridae

The roseate tern is a species of tern in the family Laridae. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific dougallii refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDougall (1777–1814). "Roseate" refers to the bird's pink breast in breeding plumage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forster's tern</span> Species of bird

Forster's tern is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and forsteri commemorates the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue-headed vireo</span> Species of bird

The blue-headed vireo is a migrating song bird found in North and Central America. There are currently two recognized subspecies that belong to the blue-headed vireo. It has a range that extends across Canada and the eastern coast of the United-States, Mexico and some of Central America. It prefers large temperate forests with a mix of evergreen trees and deciduous under growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater crested tern</span> Seabird in the family Laridae

The greater crested tern, also called crested tern, swift tern, or great crested tern, is a tern in the family Laridae that nests in dense colonies on coastlines and islands in the tropical and subtropical Old World. Its five subspecies breed in the area from South Africa around the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific and Australia, all populations dispersing widely from the breeding range after nesting. This large tern is closely related to the royal and lesser crested terns, but can be distinguished by its size and bill colour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White tern</span> Species of bird

The white tern or common white tern is a small seabird found across the tropical oceans of the world. It is sometimes known as the fairy tern, although this name is potentially confusing as it is also the common name of Sternula nereis. Other names for the species include angel tern and white noddy in English, and manu-o-Kū in Hawaiian. The little white tern, previously considered a subspecies of the white tern, is now recognised as a separate species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-fronted tern</span> Species of bird

The white-fronted tern, also known as tara, sea swallow, black-billed tern, kahawai bird, southern tern, or swallow tail, was first described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789. A medium-sized tern with an all-white body including underwing and forked tail, with grey hues on the over the upper side of the wing. In breeding adults a striking black cap covers the head from forehead to nape, leaving a small white strip above the black bill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Least tern</span> Species of bird

The least tern is a species of tern that breeds in North America and locally in northern South America. It is closely related to, and was formerly often considered conspecific with, the little tern of the Old World. Other close relatives include the yellow-billed tern and Peruvian tern, both from South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand fairy tern</span> Subspecies of bird

The New Zealand fairy tern or tara-iti is a subspecies of the fairy tern endemic to New Zealand. It is New Zealand's rarest native breeding bird, with about 40 individuals left in the wild. It nests at four coastal locations between Whangārei and Auckland in the North Island. It is threatened by introduced predators, extreme storms and tides, beach activity, and waterfront development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-crowned parakeet</span> Species of bird

The red-crowned parakeet, also known as red-fronted parakeet and by its Māori name of kākāriki, is a small parrot from New Zealand. It is characterised by its bright green plumage and the red pattern on its head. This versatile bird can feed on a variety food items and can be found in many habitat types. It used to be classified as near threatened as invasive predators had pushed it out of its historical range but it is now at least concern. This species used to occupy the entire island, but is now confined to only a few areas on the mainland and some offshore islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctic tern</span> Species of bird

The Antarctic tern is a seabird in the family Laridae. It ranges throughout the southern oceans and is found on small islands around Antarctica as well as on the shores of the mainland. Its diet consists primarily of small fish and crustaceans. It is very similar in appearance to the closely related Arctic tern, but it is stockier, and it is in its breeding plumage in the southern summer, when the Arctic tern has shed old feathers to get its non-breeding plumage. The Antarctic tern does not migrate like the Arctic tern does, but it can still be found on a very large range. This tern species is actually more closely related to the South American tern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California least tern</span> Subspecies of bird

The California least tern is a subspecies of least tern that breeds primarily in bays of the Pacific Ocean within a very limited range of Southern California, in San Francisco Bay and in northern regions of Mexico. This migratory bird is a U.S. federally listed endangered subspecies. The total population of the subspecies amounted to 582 breeding pairs in 1974, when census work on this bird began. While numbers have gradually increased with its protected status, the species is still vulnerable to population decline through natural disasters, predation, and human disturbance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-fronted plover</span> Species of shorebird of the family Charadriidae from Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar

The white-fronted plover or white-fronted sandplover is a small shorebird of the family Charadriidae that inhabits sandy beaches, dunes, mudflats and the shores of rivers and lakes in sub-saharan Africa and Madagascar. It nests in small shallow scrapes in the ground and lays clutches of one to three eggs. The species is monogamous and long-lived, with a life expectancy of approximately 12 years. The vast majority of pairs that mate together stay together during the following years of breeding and retain the same territory. The white-fronted plover has a similar appearance to the Kentish plover, with a white fore crown and dark bands connecting the eyes to the bill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-naped tern</span> Species of bird

The black-naped tern is an oceanic tern mostly found in tropical and subtropical areas of the West-Pacific and Indian Oceans. They are rarely found inland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australasian swamphen</span> Species of bird

The Australasian swamphen, also known as the pūkeko, is a striking and socially complex bird endemic to New Zealand and other parts of Australasia, including eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. A member of the Rallidae family, the pūkeko is part of the diverse order Gruiformes, which includes species with similar characteristics such as cranes and other rail species. Within the Australasian swamphen species, five recognised subspecies exist, with P. p. melanotus being the most common and widely distributed in New Zealand. They display phenotypic characteristics typical of rails: relatively short wings and strong, elongated bills, adapted to its semi-aquatic lifestyle in wetlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seabird breeding behavior</span>

The term seabird is used for many families of birds in several orders that spend the majority of their lives at sea. Seabirds make up some, if not all, of the families in the following orders: Procellariiformes, Sphenisciformes, Pelecaniformes, and Charadriiformes. Many seabirds remain at sea for several consecutive years at a time, without ever seeing land. Breeding is the central purpose for seabirds to visit land. The breeding period is usually extremely protracted in many seabirds and may last over a year in some of the larger albatrosses; this is in stark contrast with passerine birds. Seabirds nest in single or mixed-species colonies of varying densities, mainly on offshore islands devoid of terrestrial predators. However, seabirds exhibit many unusual breeding behaviors during all stages of the reproductive cycle that are not extensively reported outside of the primary scientific literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allofeeding</span>

Allofeeding is a type of food sharing behaviour observed in cooperatively breeding species of birds. Allofeeding refers to a parent, sibling or unrelated adult bird feeding altricial hatchlings, which are dependent on parental care for their survival. Allofeeding also refers to food sharing between adults of the same species. Allofeeding can occur between mates during mating rituals, courtship, egg laying or incubation, between peers of the same species, or as a form of parental care.

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2018). "Sternula nereis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2018: e.T22694691A132568135. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22694691A132568135.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Treadgold (2000). Behavioural Ecology of the endangered New Zealand Fairy Tern (Tara-iti) Sterna nereis davisae: implications for management. Massey University (Thesis).
  3. ↑ Baling, Marleen; Brunton, Dianne H. (2022). "Structured phylogeography and restricted gene flow among populations of Fairy Tern ( Sternula nereis ) across Australasia: implications for the endangered New Zealand population". Ibis. 164 (3): 800–808. doi:10.1111/ibi.13048. hdl: 10652/5674 . ISSN   0019-1019.
  4. 1 2 "Fairy Tern: Sterna nereis". Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
  5. 1 2 3 "Species factsheet: Sterna nereis". BirdLife International. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
  6. ↑ Smith, Anneke (23 August 2018). "Rarest bird in the country gets a helping hand". RNZ.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "New Zealand fairy tern/tara iti". www.doc.govt.nz. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Ismar, Stefanie M. H.; Trnski, Tom; Beauchamp, Tony; Bury, Sarah J.; Wilson, David; Kannemeyer, Robyn; Bellingham, Mark; Baird, Karen (March 2014). "Foraging ecology and choice of feeding habitat in the New Zealand Fairy Tern Sternula nereis davisae". Bird Conservation International. 24 (1): 72–87. doi:10.1017/S0959270913000312. ProQuest   1611063475.
  9. 1 2 3 Greenwell, C.N.; Tweedley, J.R.; Moore, G.I.; Lenanton, R.C.J.; Dunlop, J.N.; Loneragan, N.R. (December 2021). "Feeding ecology of a threatened coastal seabird across an inner shelf seascape". Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 263: 107627. Bibcode:2021ECSS..26307627G. doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107627.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Greenwell, Claire (2021). Life history, ecology, and population dynamics of the Australian Fairy Tern and implications for their conservation (Thesis).[ page needed ]
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Barré, Nicolas; Baling, Marleen; Baillon, Nathalie; Le Bouteiller, Aubert; Bachy, Pierre; Chartendrault, Vivien; Spaggiari, Jérôme (2012). "Survey of Fairy Tern Sterna Nereis Exsul in New Caledonia" (PDF). Marine Ornithology. 40: 31–38.
  12. ↑ Bastock, Margaret (2018-05-04). Courtship: An Ethological Study (1 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203794562. ISBN   978-0-203-79456-2.
  13. ↑ "New Zealand fairy tern/tara iti". www.doc.govt.nz. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  14. ↑ Greenwell, Claire N.; Dunlop, J.N.; Admiraal, R.; Loneragan, N.R. (2020). "The secret life of Fairy Terns: breeding chronology and life history observations of Sternula nereis nereis in south-western Australia". Pacific Conservation Biology. 27 (2): 143–154. doi:10.1071/PC20056.
  15. ↑ Jeffries, Darryl S.; Bull, Leigh S.; Lagnaz, Eliane G.; Wilson, David S.; Wilson, Peter; Zimmerman, Rangi L.; Pulham, Gwenda A. (2016). "New Zealand fairy tern (Sternula nereis davisae) foraging behaviour at Te Arai Stream" (PDF). The Ornithological Society of New Zealand Inc. 63: 42–45.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Villard, Pascal; Hunt, Gavin; Coll, Jonathan; Cassan, Jean-Jérome (2020-10-01). "Breeding biology of Fairy Terns on Magone Islet, New Caledonia". Emu - Austral Ornithology. 120 (4): 360–364. Bibcode:2020EmuAO.120..360V. doi:10.1080/01584197.2020.1830705. ISSN   0158-4197.
  17. 1 2 3 Baling, Marleen; Jeffries, Darryl; Barré, Nicolas; Brunton, Dianne H. (2009). "A survey of Fairy Tern ( Sterna nereis ) breeding colonies in the Southern Lagoon, New Caledonia". Emu-Austral Ornithology. 109 (1): 57–61. Bibcode:2009EmuAO.109...57B. doi:10.1071/MU08047. ISSN   0158-4197 – via Tandfonline.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Roberts, James J.; Brunton, Dianne H.; Clement, Hannah; Harmer, Aaron M.T. (2024-04-02). "Observations of chick feeding rates and parental defensive responses to disturbance at nests in the critically endangered New Zealand fairy tern/tara iti ( Sternula nereis davisae )". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 51 (2): 175–185. doi: 10.1080/03014223.2023.2256239 . ISSN   0301-4223.
  19. 1 2 3 Greenwell, C.N.; Sullivan, D.; Goddard, N.; Bedford, F.; Douglas, T.K. (2021). "Application of a novel banding technique and photographic recapture to describe plumage development and behaviour of juvenile fairy terns". Australian Field Ornithology. 38: 49–55. doi:10.20938/afo38049055 – via Informit.
  20. 1 2 Greenwell, Claire N.; Calver, Michael C.; Loneragan, Neil R. (2019). "Cat Gets Its Tern: A Case Study of Predation on a Threatened Coastal Seabird". Animals. 9 (7): 445. doi: 10.3390/ani9070445 . ISSN   2076-2615. PMC   6681120 . PMID   31315191.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.