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Elegant Tern | Thalasseus elegans
Sierlijke stern | Charrán Elegante
The Elegant Tern is a medium-sized crested tern of the Pacific coast of Mexico and California that very rarely crosses the Atlantic. In southern Africa it is an extremely rare vagrant, usually found among flocks of Sandwich Terns on the west coast.
Voice
A grating, rasping kee-rick, lower and rougher than the call of Sandwich Tern.
Recording: Paul Marvin — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 41 cm, slightly larger and longer-billed than Sandwich Tern. The upperparts are pale grey and the underparts white, often with a soft pink flush in the breeding season. The bill is long, thin and slightly drooping, orange to red-orange and paler towards the tip. The black crest is long and shaggy and hangs well down the nape; in non-breeding plumage the forehead is white, but the black extends around and in front of the eye, so the eye is lost in the black. The legs are black. Juveniles have a yellowish bill and dark markings on the wing.
Confusion species
Lesser Crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis) has a shorter, straighter orange bill and a grey rather than white rump. West African Crested Tern (Thalasseus albididorsalis) is larger and more heavily built, with a thicker bill. Hybrids between Elegant Tern and Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) have been proven in Europe and can show an orange or mixed-coloured bill; a firm record needs good photographs of bill shape, crest and wing pattern.
Habitat
Inshore waters, lagoons and estuaries; roosts on sandy beaches and sandbars among other terns.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Known only as a vagrant, with a few accepted records in the Western Cape and on the Namibian coast. Breeds almost entirely on a handful of islands in the Gulf of California and along the coast of southern California, and winters along the west coast of South America to Chile; in western Europe it is a rare vagrant that sometimes breeds among Sandwich Terns.
How and when to look
Scan Sandwich Tern flocks at the roosts of Walvis Bay and the Western Cape critically for a bird with a long orange bill and a shaggy crest. Take as many photographs as possible of a candidate, including in flight, and submit the record to the rarities committee.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The world population is fairly small and largely concentrated on a single island in the Gulf of California, making the species vulnerable to disturbance, predation and changes in shoaling fish during El Niño events. Southern Africa has no bearing on its status.
Scientific name
Thalasseus elegans | (Gambel, 1849)
Gambel described the species in 1849 as Sterna elegans; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Thalasseus was introduced in 1822 by Boie. Thalasseus derives from Ancient Greek thalassa 'sea'. elegans is Latin for 'elegant, fine'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Mazatlán, Mexico.