Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)

© Bryan Calk

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)

© Bryan Calk

BOTD: Arctic Tern

Photo: Ingeborg van Leeuwen

"Famous as a long-distance champion: some Arctic Terns may migrate farther than any other birds, going from the high Arctic to the Antarctic. Breeds on coasts and tundra from New England, Washington, and Britain north to the northernmost limits of land, and spends the rest of the year at sea. Its migrations take it to every ocean, and to the vicinity of every continent. In North America, seldom seen from land south of its breeding grounds."

- Audubon Field Guide

A new variant has been added!

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) © OddurBen

It hatches from arctic, black, coastal, common, dark, elegant, forked, limited, long, offshore, pale, partial, red, separate, similar, small, southern, white, and young eggs.

squawkoverflow - the ultimate bird collecting game          🥚 hatch    ❤️ collect     🤝 connect

Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) By: D. & K. Urry From: The Complete Encyclopedia of the Animal World 1980

Bird Species

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) bringing a fish to its partner.

Photo: Craig Nash / 500px

The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a remarkable migrator, flying from their northern summer breeding grounds across the arctic and sub-arctic to the Antarctic coast for the southern summer. Arctic terns breeding in Iceland and Greenland were found to travel an average of 70,900 km (44,100 mi) a year, or 2.4 million km (1.5 million mi) over their 30-year lifespan.

(ref)

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)

Family: Gull Family (Laridae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Arctic Terns live a life of almost constant migration: they breed in the Arctic circle and surrounding subarctic zone during the northern hemisphere’s summer (typically inhabiting their nesting site from April until August), and upon the end of the breeding season they travel over 24,000km (roughly 14913 miles) to spend the southern hemisphere’s summer in the waters surrounding Antarctica. Depending on where the terns leave from and where they choose to nest, this pole-to-pole migration adds up to a total distance of between 48,000 and 70,000km (29826-43496 miles), making it by far the longest migration carried out by any animal. Arctic Terns feed primarily on young fish (although they will also take crustaceans, molluscs, worms and, where available, insects and berries) and nest in colonies, with each individual returning to the same colony and reuniting with the same mate every year, so long as the male in the pair succeeds in an initial courtship display involving being chased through the sky by the female to show his fitness and providing gifts of fish to show his hunting ability. They nest near the coast by excavating a small ditch in soft, sandy ground, and produce a clutch of 1-3 eggs which are brown and speckled to help them blend in with their surroundings. Both the mother (who stands guard of the nest and incubates the eggs) and the father (who provides fish for his mate and chicks) will fiercely defend their nests from any other animals that come near them, and have been known to drive back threats as large as Polar Bears.  

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Animal Advent Calendar - Day 3

Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4449-Sterna-paradisaea

Day 2

Bird watching boat trip at Vestmanna

Birds I saw:

Black guillemot (Cepphus grylle)

Common guillemot (Uria aalge)

Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica)

Razorbill (Alca torda)

Northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis)

Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea)

Great black-backed gull (Larus marinus)

European herring gull (Larus argentatus)

Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus)

I will post more bird pictures to Instagram @ stalkkeriwolf

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)

© Bryan Calk

Arctic Tern, Sterna paradisaea

a common tern (Sterna hirundo) hovering and looking for prey (I'm not 100% sure, it might also be an arctic tern, S. paradisaea, both do nest in the area)

A new variant has been added!

Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) © H. L. Meyer

It hatches from arctic, black, coastal, common, dark, elegant, forked, limited, long, offshore, pale, partial, red, separate, similar, small, southern, white, and young eggs.

squawkoverflow - the ultimate bird collecting game          🥚 hatch    ❤️ collect     🤝 connect

[331/10,977] Arctic Tern - Sterna paradisaea

Order: Charadriiformes Suborder: Lari Family: Laridae (gulls, terns and skimmers) Subfamily: Sterninae (terns)

Photo credit: Bryan Calk via Macaulay Library

The Remarkable Adaptability of Arctic Terns in the Face of Climate Change

In the vast expanse of the Arctic region, where the pristine beauty of icy landscapes meets the formidable challenges of a changing climate, certain species stand out for their remarkable abilities to endure and overcome adversity. Among them, the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) emerges as an inspirational symbol of adaptability and resilience. Recent research has shed light on how these…

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Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea).