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Recently, a Saunders's tern was sighted at the Adyar Estuary, Chennai, marking the first record of this bird in the city.
- It is a small, ground-nesting marine bird found on coastal sandbars and mudflats.
- Scientific name - Sternula saundersi.
- It is also known as the black-shafted tern.
- Family – This bird species belongs to the family Laridae.
- Habitat - Found on coastal sand bars and mudflats, and sometimes on the open ocean.
- Distribution - It is sparsely resident along the shores of the north-western Indian Ocean including southern Somalia, Arabian Peninsula, Socotra, Pakistan, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and northern Sri Lanka.
- Morphology - It has a yellow bill and neat black head markings in breeding plumage, and a dark bill and messier head markings in non-breeding plumage.
- It is a close relative of the little tern, least tern, yellow-billed tern, and Peruvian tern.
- In breeding plumage, Saunders’s Tern can be identified by the fact that the small white patch on its forehead is squared off and doesn’t extend behind the eye.
- In non-breeding plumage, the two species may be indistinguishable.
- Diet - Comprises many kinds of marine animals, such as small fish, crustaceans, and mollusks.
- Breeding - It nests on the ground up to 2 km inland on uncovered sandy sites, shingles, or dried mud.
- The species breeds on the sandbars of Adam's bridge, (located between India’s Pamban Island and Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island) is a chain of natural limestone shoals.
- Conservation Status – IUCN - Least Concern.
References
- The Hindu| Saunders's tern
- eBird | Saunders's tern
