AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

Sterna cantiaca

Sterna cantiaca, Gm.

990bis. :- Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 321.

Length, 17.5 to 18; wing, 11.5 to 12.5; tail, 6 to 6.2; bill at front, 2 to 2.4.

Bill black, tipped yellowish-white ; irides brown ; legs and feet black.

Forehead, crown, back of neck, and nape, occipital crest and ear-coverts, glossy black; sides of the face, chin, throat, neck in front and behind, breast and entire lower parts, white, tinged with rosy; mantle and wings pale silvery-grey; the first primary is slightly darker than the rest, with more than half of the inner webs near the shaft white ; the next two or three paler, also the succeeding ones, till they shade away into the color of the wing-coverts; their inner webs greyish-white or white; under wing-coverts white; tail forked, white ; the external feathers on each side slightly greyish on their outer webs ; upper tail-coverts white.

In winter plumage the whole of the head is white or mottled with white and black, and there is a crescentic narrow black spot in front of the eye; mantle and wings as in the summer plumage.

This Tern is common in the Kurrachee Harbour and on the Sind and Mekran Coasts. It breeds in the Persian Gulf.

BookTitle: 
Handbook to the Birds of the Bombay Presidency
Reference: 
Barnes, Henry Edwin. Handbook to the birds of the Bombay Presidency, 1885.
Title in Book: 
Sterna cantiaca
Spp Author: 
Gm.
Book Author: 
Barnes, H. Edwin
Year: 
1885
Page No: 
432
M_ID: 
4600
M_CN: 
Sandwich Tern
M_SN: 
Thalasseus sandvicensis
id: 
12230

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