Little white tern

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LIttle white tern
Gygis alba microrhyncha, Fakarava, French Polynesia.jpg

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
Genus: Gygis
Species:
G. microrhyncha
Binomial name
Gygis microrhyncha
Saunders, 1876

The little white tern (Gygis microrhyncha) is a small seabird found in French Polynesia and the Republic of Kiribati.[2] This species was previously considered a subspecies of the white tern (Gygis alba microrhyncha), but is now recognised as a separate species.[3]

Taxonomy[]

The little white tern was first formally described by the British ornithologist Howard Saunders in 1876 under the binomial name Gygis microrhyncha[4] meaning small (micro) bill (rhyncha). There are no recognized subspecies. Some authors have postulated that there may be three species of Gygis: Gygis alba, in the Atlantic Ocean, and Gygis candida and Gygis microrhyncha, both in the Pacific.[5]

Description[]

The little white tern is much smaller and has a more slender bill than any subspecies of the common white tern.[6] It has been described as a "compact, goggle-eyed bird with shorter, more rounded wings and less deeply forked tail" when compared to Gygis alba.[5] The calamus or 'quill' of the feather in the little white tern are notably white compared to black calamus found in common white terns.[7]

Distribution and habitat[]

The little white tern ranges throughout French Polynesia and the Republic of Kiribati, including the Phoenix and Line Islands,[8] and was first described from three specimens from the Marquesas Islands.

References[]

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2018). "Gygis alba". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  2. ^ BirdLife International (2018). "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Gygis microrhyncha". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 2021-05-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ del Hoyo, J; Collar, N.J.; Christie, D.A.; Elliott, A.; Fishpool, L.D.C. (2014). HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.: Lynx Edicions BirdLife International.
  4. ^ Saunders, Howard (1876). "On the Sterninæ, or Terns, with Descriptions of Three New Species". Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 44: 638–672. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1876.tb02598.x.
  5. ^ a b Pratt, H. Douglas (2020). "Species limits and English names in the genus Gygis (Laridae)". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 140 (2): 195–208. doi:10.25226/bboc.v140i2.2020.a10. ISSN 0007-1595.
  6. ^ Olson, Storrs L (2005). "First occurrence of Gygis microrhyncha in the Hawaiian Islands". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 125: 155–157.
  7. ^ Tristram, H.B. (1881). "Notes on a Collection of Birds from the Marquesas Islands". Ibis. 23 (2): 249–253. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1881.tb06022.x.
  8. ^ "Gygis microrhyncha (Little White Tern) - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
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