Onychoprion fuscatus, Sooty tern
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Onychoprion fuscatus   Linnaeus, 1766

Sooty tern
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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 Avibase -the World Bird Database. http://www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp [accessed 09/07/2007]. (Ref. 7816)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2025-1)

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

CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Human uses


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Trophic Ecology
Food items (preys)
Diet composition
Food consumption
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
Population dynamics
Growth
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Abundance
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Fecundity
Spawning
Eggs
Egg development
Larvae
Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Physiology
Oxygen consumption
Human Related
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
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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).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 71543): High vulnerability (63 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766): Unknown.

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