This website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and ensure the functionality of our site. For more detailed information about the types of cookies we use and how we protect your privacy, please visit our Privacy Information page.

×

Cookie Settings

This website uses different types of cookies to enhance your experience. Please select your preferences below:

Onychoprion fuscatus, Sooty tern

Common name (e.g. turtle)

Genus + Species (e.g. Caretta caretta)

  • Back to search
  • About this page
    • More Info
    • Plus d'info
    • Mais info
  • Languages
    • Bahasa/Malay
    • Bangla
    • Chinese(Si)
    • Chinese(Tr)
    • Deutsch
    • English
    • Español
    • Farsi
    • Français
    • Greek
    • Hindi
    • Italiano
    • Lao
    • Nederlands
    • Português(Br)
    • Português(Pt)
    • Russian
    • Swedish
    • Thai
    • Vietnamese
  • Feedback
    • Comments & Corrections 
  • Citation
  • Upload
    • Upload photo
  • Related species
    • Species in
        Onychoprion
    • Species in
        Laridae
    • - Classification -
    • Laridae
    • Charadriiformes
    • Aves
    • Chordata
    • Animalia
  • Search

Onychoprion fuscatus   Linnaeus, 1766

Sooty tern
Upload your photos 
 All pictures | Google image |
Image of Onychoprion fuscatus (Sooty tern)
Onychoprion fuscatus

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | CoL | ITIS | WoRMS

Aves | Charadriiformes | Laridae

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Pelagic.  Tropical; 35°N - 40°S (Ref. 96995)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions

Indo-Pacific, Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm Max length : 45.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 8812); max. published weight: 180.00 g (Ref. 356); max. reported age: 36 years (Ref. 8545)

Short description Morphology

Culmen: 4.53 cm; tarsus: 2.52 cm; wing: 30.5 cm.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Total Length: 43 to 45 cm; Wingspan: 86 to 94 cm (Ref. 8812). Pelagic (Ref. 122680). Coastal and oceanic islands, and offshore (Ref. 356). In beach, shoreline and pelagic zone (Ref. 116102). Pantropic, pelagic species. Strong flyer, high over the ocean. Forms large breeding colonies on tropical and subtropical islands on sand, coral and rock, with or without vegetation. Forages in flocks (Ref. 84934). Remains 10 to 20 m above water then descends and wheels in circles before grabbing its food (Ref. 356). Feeding techniques: air dipping and contact dipping from the water surface (Refs. 356, 96995). Diet consists of squid, goatfish, flyingfish and mackerel scad (Ref. 122680). Does not plunge dive and rarely stays long in water as plumage is not waterproof. Colonies may suffer heavy losses of eggs by predatory cats (Ref. 84934).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Birds go to the island at night, 3 months before laying. Hatching peaks in the middle of April. Most fledging shows in June and leave the island at the beginning of August while the adults leave at the end of August (Ref. 96995).

Main reference References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Lepage, D. 2007. (Ref. 7816)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-2)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 19 February 2020

CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Human uses


| FishSource |

Tools

E-book | Field guide

More information

Trophic Ecology
Food items
Diet composition
Food consumption
Food rations
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
Population dynamics
Growth
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Fecundity
Spawning
Eggs
Egg development
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Human Related
Aquaculture profiles
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
Collaborators
Taxonomy
Common names
Synonyms
Morphology
Pictures
References
References

Internet sources

BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Publication : search) | Fishipedia | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | 1 GoMexSI (interaction data) | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 23.3 - 29.2, mean 27.9 (based on 4066 cells).
Resilience (Ref. 69278): High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (K=5.28; tm=3; tmax=36).
Vulnerability (Ref. 71543): High vulnerability (63 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766): Unknown.

Comments & Corrections
Back to Search
Random Species
Back to Top