Arctic Tern
Posted in Gulls, Terns on March 19, 2018 by macpherc
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/awake-no4-2017-august/the-arctic-tern/
Scientific:
Sterna vittata
Order:
Charadriiformes
Family:
Laridae
Genus:
Sterna
Other Languages:
Latin : Sterna paradisaea
Danish : Havterne
Greenlandic : Emakatilak, Imeqqutaalaq
Length: 11.0-15.3 in (28-39 cm)
Weight: 3.2-4.2 oz (90-120 g)
Wingspan: 25.6-29.5 in (65-75 cm)
The arctic tern is a small tern species with a sharp red bill, red legs, and deeply forked tail. A colony can contain everything from a few couples of mating birds to 20,000 couples, and it is estimated that there’s as many as 65,000 mating couples are currently in Greenland. There is a very high population of Arctic Terns around the Baffin Bay, on the Southwest Coast of Greenland.
Karl-Birger Strann, XC401938. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/401938
References:
Lepage, Dennis. Avibase The World Bird Database (2018) Sterna paradisaea
Sibley, D. A. (2014). The Sibley guide to birds, second edition. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, USA.
Hatch, Jeremy J. 2002. Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA.
BirdLife International (2018) Species factsheet: Sterna paradisaea.