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Lesser Crested Tern | Thalasseus bengalensis
Bengaalse stern | Charrán Bengalí
The Lesser Crested Tern is a medium-sized crested tern with a slim orange bill that breeds around the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean. It visits the warm east coast of the region in the southern summer, where it roosts among the far more numerous Greater Crested Terns.
Voice
A rasping kree-ik, slightly higher and less harsh than the call of Greater Crested Tern.
Recording: David Darrell-Lambert — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 40 cm, similar in size and build to Sandwich Tern but with a longer, slim, bright orange to yellow-orange bill. The upperparts are pale grey, slightly darker than in Sandwich Tern, and the rump and tail are grey too, lacking the contrast of a white rump. In non-breeding plumage, which most birds here wear, the forehead is white and the black hind crown forms a short crest; in breeding plumage the black cap reaches the bill, without a white band. The legs are black. In flight the dark outer primaries form a grey wedge.
Confusion species
Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii) is larger and darker grey, with a yellow bill and, in breeding plumage, a white band between cap and bill. West African Crested Tern (Thalasseus albididorsalis) is larger, with a white rump and a thicker bill. Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans) has a longer, slightly drooping bill and a white rump. Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) has a black bill tipped yellow.
Habitat
Warm inshore waters, bays, estuaries and lagoons, often near coral reefs and sand flats; roosts on beaches, sandbars and rocks among other terns.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Mainly along the coast of Mozambique, south to northern KwaZulu-Natal (Richards Bay and Durban) and rarely further south to the Eastern Cape; a few birds also oversummer on the Mozambican coast. Exceptional on the west coast. Breeds in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, on the north African coast in Libya and further east to Australia; the birds reaching the region come from the north-western Indian Ocean.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the summer months scan the Greater Crested Tern roosts in the estuaries at Richards Bay and at Mozambican coastal sites such as Inhambane and Maputo Bay for a smaller, pale tern with an orange bill. A grey rump in flight confirms the identification.
Conservation status
Not threatened and widespread, but the breeding colonies are vulnerable to egg collecting, disturbance and oil pollution in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. No specific threats in southern Africa.
Scientific name
Thalasseus bengalensis | (Lesson, 1831)
Lesson described the species in 1831 as Sterna bengalensis; 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'. bengalensis means 'of Bengal', the region the type specimen came from. The specimen the first description was based on came from the coast of India.