15 inches. Male and female identical in appearance. It is a small tern with the grey top body, a white forehead and dark wings edges. The rest of the body is white. Unlike the sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus), the white area of the forehead covers the side of the head. The beak and legs are black. Its sharp, tapered wings and long forked tail are characteristic of terns.
Feeds near the islands where it nests. This bird is pelagic outside the breeding season.
Call similar, in softer, the one of the Sooty Tern.
To listen the Grey-backed Tern:
Fishes, cephalopods and insects that it captures while diving.
Lays a single egg (43 x 33 mm). Breeds in scattered small colonies.
Original text by Caroline BLANVILLAIN – Supplements and update by various members of the SOP Manu.
Scientific Name: Onychoprion lunatus (Peale, 1848)
Ore ore (Scilly), kaveka (Tuamotu), tara, ta’a (Marquesas)