Birds Of Prey And Waterbirds Codexery

Arctic tern

Arctic tern: the animal with the longest known migration.

Last updated

The Arctic tern is a medium-sized bird weighing around 100 g, with a length of 33 to 36 cm and a wingspan of 76 to 85 cm.[1][2]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. ClassAves
  4. OrderCharadriiformes
  5. FamilyLaridae
  6. GenusSterna
  7. SpeciesSterna paradisaea

Named by Pontoppidan, 1763

Close relatives

Other species of Sterna with a Codexery entry.

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Arctic tern (CC BY-SA 4.0) · order, family and genus agree with WoRMS AphiaID 137165 (CC BY 4.0)

Conservation status

Least Concern (LC)

  1. LC▲ this species
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX
Population trend
Not held in our sources — see the assessment
Assessment published
2018

Source: IUCN Red List assessment · GBIF copy of the Red List category

How big is it?

Size comparison: Arctic tern and a personA 0.85 m long arctic tern drawn to scale next to a 1.8 m tall person. Schematic shapes, not a likeness.0.85 m1.8 m

Largest length in the source, 0.85 m, next to a 1.8 m person.

Diagram: drawn by Codexery, schematic shapes to scale (not a likeness). Length: Wikipedia: Arctic tern

Where the arctic tern has been recorded

Where the arctic tern has been recorded73 mapped locations from 843,525 GBIF occurrence records; marked places: Greenland, Netherlands, Farne IslandsGreenlandNetherlandsFarne Islands

Each dot is a place where the species has been observed and reported (843,525 records, half-degree grid) — not a modelled range. 96 inland records left out (institution coordinates). 3 isolated far-off records not drawn.

Map: drawn by Codexery. Data: GBIF occurrence search (records CC0 / CC BY) · Natural Earth basemap (public domain) · place coordinates: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Biology and range

The Arctic tern has a continuous circumpolar breeding distribution across cooler temperate coastal regions of North America and Eurasia.[3] The BTO account notes that Arctic terns are more oceanic than most terns and have the longest migrations of any.[4] Breeding in Britain is exclusively coastal and mainly in the north, with highest numbers in the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland.[4] According to a 2010 study that employed tracking devices, eleven birds nesting in Greenland or Iceland traveled an average of 70,900 km annually, with the farthest individual covering 81,600 km.[5]

To make use of favorable winds, the birds take a somewhat winding path.[6]

What the specialist sources record

The BTO account states that Arctic tern numbers increased by 50% between 1969–70 and 1985–88, then declined by 31% by the Seabird 2000 Census.[4] The BTO also reports that the breeding range has contracted by 31% since the 1968–72 Breeding Atlas, with losses greatest in western Scotland due to predation by American Mink and in eastern Scotland due to food shortages.[4] The previous record had been held by an Arctic tern that covered 91,000 km on its flight from the Netherlands.[7] A Newcastle University report notes that 53 adult birds nesting on the Farne Islands were fitted with geolocators over three years.[8]

The Newcastle University team found that the terns' regular route is to travel overland across the UK to the Irish Sea, rather than a coastal route.[8] More than two thousand pairs of Arctic terns breed on the Farne Islands.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Arctic tern" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Svensson, "Collins Bird Guide", William Collins, 2023-03-16, p. 208; "Handbook of the Birds of the World", Lynx Edicions, 1996, p. 653; "Arctic Tern", BTO (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Arctic tern" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Handbook of the Birds of the World", Lynx Edicions, 1996, p. 653 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Arctic tern" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Arctic tern", Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. "Arctic Tern", BTO. facts only, no text reused. bto.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Arctic tern" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Egevang, "Tracking of Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea reveals longest animal migration", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010, p. 2078–2081 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Arctic tern" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Arctic terns' flying feat", Reuters, 11 January 2010; Inman, "World's Longest Migration Found--2X Longer Than Thought", National Geographic Society, 12 January 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. BBC News, "Arctic tern in record-breaking migration from Farne Islands", 7 June 2016. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  8. "Arctic Terns", Newcastle University, 2019-03-25. facts only, no text reused. ncl.ac.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Arctic tern (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Test yourself on TriviaCafe: What is the scientific name of the Arctic tern: Caracara plancus, Aegypius monachus, Sterna paradisaea or… · Which seabird makes the longest migration of any animal, flying each year from the Arctic to the Antarctic… · More animals trivia

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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