Sooty Terns displaying to each other on Michaelmas Cay, The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia
The sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) is a seabird in the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans, breeding on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Colloquially, it is known as the wideawake tern or just wideawake. This refers to the incessant calls produced by a colony of these birds, as does the Hawaiian name ʻewa ʻewa which roughly means "cacophony".[4] In most of Polynesia its name is manutara or similar however – literally "tern-bird",[5] though it might be better rendered in English as "the tern" or "common tern". This refers to the fact that wherever Polynesian seafarers went on their long voyages, they usually would find these birds in astounding numbers. It is also known as kaveka in the Marquesas Islands, where dishes using its eggs are a delicacy.[6] The Sooty Tern has little interspecific variation, but it can be divided into at least two allopatric subspecies. Some recent authors further subdivide the Indopacific population into up to 8 subspecies altogether, but much of the variation is really clinal. The affinities of eastern Pacific birds (including the famous manutara of Easter Island) are most strongly contested. Michaelmas and Upolu Cays is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1,409 km (876 mi) northwest of Brisbane and 33 km (21 mi) east of Cairns. It comprises two small cays on Michaelmas Reef, which forms the north-eastern section of the Arlington reef complex, within the Great Barrier Reef. Michaelmas Cay is important as a breeding site for several species of terns. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports over 1% of the world populations of greater and lesser crested terns. Sooty terns and common noddies also breed there. Other terns that have nested on the cay in the past include roseate and black-naped terns. Green turtles sometimes nest on the cays. The surrounding reefs have a rich marine fauna, including giant clams
Size: 4496px × 3099px
Location: Michaelmas Cay, Queensland, Australia
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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