Sooty Tern

Onychoprion fuscatus (Linnaeus, 1766)

33–36 cmLength90 cmWingspan186 gWeight

It is an oceanic tern with a black back and white to pale gray belly, capable of staying in flight for several years.

Most records: U.S. Outlying Islands, Norfolk Island, United States

Looks like Bridled Tern

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Upperparts black; underparts white to pale gray
Forehead white
Tail forked and black with white outer edges
Legs and bill black

Male, female and young

Juvenile has gray-black upperparts and underparts, with pale feather edges on the upperparts giving a scaly appearance.

Voice

A loud, grating call like “wide-a-wake”, also rendered “ker-wack-a-wack”; also gives a grating alarm call, “kvaark”.

Similar species

Bridled Tern

Bridled Tern is smaller; Sooty Tern has a darker back, a broader white forehead and no pale collar.

Where and when it's recorded

Most records: U.S. Outlying Islands, Norfolk Island, United States

Sooty Tern has been recorded at 265 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 72 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Midway Atoll – Water Catchment AreaU.S. Outlying Islands516 records
Midway Atoll NWR – Eastern IslandU.S. Outlying Islands351 records
Midway Atoll NWR – Sand IslandU.S. Outlying Islands290 records

More places

Norfolk Island – Phillip IslandNorfolk Island187 records
TetiaroaFrench Polynesia187 records
Little Tobago IslandTrinidad & Tobago186 records
Norfolk Island National Park – Captain Cook MemorialNorfolk Island182 records
ArideSeychelles158 records
Baby Beach at southern tipAruba158 records
Bolsa Chica Ecological ReserveUnited States140 records

Countries and regions with the most records

U.S. Outlying Islands Norfolk Island United States Seychelles French Polynesia Trinidad & Tobago Aruba Curaçao

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) is a tern in the family Laridae. It is a seabird of the tropical oceans and can fly for years at a time, skimming the sea surface for food, and returning to land only to breed, on islands throughout the equatorial zone.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Sooty Tern?

The Sooty Tern is about 33–36 cm long, with a wingspan of 90 cm and weighs around 186 g.

Where does the Sooty Tern live?

Its breeding range: Tropical Oceans: widespread in all tropical and subtropical oceans. It is most often recorded in U.S. Outlying Islands, Norfolk Island and United States.