Black-naped tern



Singapore Infopedia

Background

The black-naped tern (Sterna sumatrana) is a slender white bird found in rocky islets near the Singapore coast.1 It was one of the bird species identified and named by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1822. Its species name, sumatrana, describes where Raffles collected the specimen during his naturalist voyages – the island of Sumatra.2

The bird was featured on the S$1 “Bird Series” currency notes issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore between 1976 and 1984.It also appeared on 15-cent definitive postage stamps placed on sale on 9 November 1966.In 2001, the black-naped tern made another appearance on CashCards issued by the Singapore Mint to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the currency notes.5

Description

This species of terns is a slender bird, with narrow wings and a distinct long, forked tail. Its name is attributed to the presence of a thin black strip extending before its eyes to its lower nape, giving it a masked appearance.6 Its colour is predominantly white, with a pale grey wash on its upper parts.Specimens recorded are about 30 to 35cm in length.8 Both sexes are alike and its breeding plumage can be distinguished by a pinkish tinge on the breast during the breeding season.9 Its legs, feet and bill are black.10 Juveniles have buffy grey or black mottled heads, black napes and pale grey underparts.11 The call is a high-pitched “keeyic” or “kee”, often repeated three or four times.12

Reproduction
Black-naped terns nest in small colonies and usually do not nest with other tern species, although they may be associated with nesting colonies of Roseate terns (Sterna dougalli).13 Their courtship involves courtship feeding and flight displays.14 They lay their eggs directly on rocky surfaces on cliffs, or on the ground in a slight depression above tide level, with no nesting material.15 However, bits of rocks are sometimes used to encircle the eggs.16 One or two eggs are laid and these are light buff or pale greenish in colour with rough blotches of lilac grey, gull grey, dark chestnut brown or black.17

In Singapore, breeding has been recorded on Batu Puteh Ternery, a rocky islet off the northern Changi coast.18 Documents show that black-naped terns have been nesting on the rock since 1949.19 The breeding season is between May and August.20 Eggs are incubated for about 21 to 23 days.21

Diet
This bird feeds on small fish about 4 to 8 cm long, often making shallow plunge-dives into the sea but also fishing from the surface. It is solitary when it feeds.22

Distribution and habitat
There are 44 species of terns worldwide (twelve of which have been recorded in Singapore23) and they are primarily distributed in tropical areas, including much of Southeast Asia.24 The range of the black-naped tern covers the Pacific and Indian oceans, from the Andaman and Nicobar islands to southern Japan and China, and southwards through Southeast Asia, up to Papua New Guinea and parts of north-eastern and eastern Australia.25

Black-naped terns are largely found along stretches of coast with granite boulders or rocky outcrops off the shore, not more than a few hundred metres from the larger landmass.26

In Singapore, the bird can be sighted off Changi Point and Pulau Ubin.27 Its presence has been recorded on other offshore islands such as  Pulau Brani, Kusu Island, Sentosa, and St John's Island.28

Conservation
The population of black-naped terns in Singapore is generally in decline.29 In 2008, its population was estimated to be about 100.30 Today, the bird is seldom encountered, and the probability of encountering it at its preferred habitats is less than 50 percent.31 Furthermore, its only known breeding site is not protected from human disturbance.32 As at 2008, it was classified nationally as Endangered.33

Variant names

Malay: Camar Tengkuk Hitam;34 Burong Chamar Sumatera;35 Chamar.36
Chinese: 黑枕燕鸥 (hei zhen yan ou)37



Author
Eunice Low



References
1. Clive Briffett, The Birds of Singapore (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 38. (Call no. RSING 598.295757 BRI)
2. Thomas Stamford Raffles, “Second Part of the Descriptive Catalogue of a Zoological Collection Made in the Island of Sumatra and Its Vicinity,” Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 13, no. 2 (December 1822): 277–40.
3. Sim Chuan Hup, Singapore Money Book (Singapore: Moneyworld Asia, 1994), 28. (Call no. RSING 769.5595957 SIN); Dominic Nathan, “Nature Society Wants Khatib Bongsu and Senoko Conserved,” Straits Times, 16 June 1993, 19; “Bird-Series Cashcards, New Coin Set Launched,” Straits Times, 20 July 2001, 5; “Page 5 Advertisements Column 2: ‘Save a Little Everyday’ and Know Your $1 Note,” Straits Times, 21 August 1985, 5. (From NewspaperSG)
4. Ministry of Culture, “New Singapore Definitive Postage Stamp,” press release, 30 June 1966 (From National Archives of Singapore document no. PressR19660930c); Singapore Postage Stamps Catalogue (Singapore: CS Philatelic Agency, 2011), 38. (Call no. RSING 769.5695957 SPSC)
5. “Bird-series Cashcards, New Coin Set Launched,” Straits Times, 20 July 2001, 5. (From NewspaperSG)
6. Ben F. King and Edward C. Dickinson, Birds of South-east Asia: Covering Burma, Malaya, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Hong Kong (London: Collins, 1975), 163 (Call no. RSEA 598.2989 KIN); David R. Wells, The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula: Covering Burma and Thailand South of the Eleventh Parallel, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Vol. 1, Non-Passerines (California: Academic Press, 1999), 315 (Call no. RSING 598.0959 WEL); Yong Ding Li and Lim Kim Chuah, A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of Singapore (England: John Beaufoy Publishing, 2016), 67 (Call no. RSING 598.095957 YON); Briffett, Birds of Singapore, 38.
7. Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67.
8. Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott and Jordi Sargatal, eds., Handbook of the Birds of the World (Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, 1996), 652 (Call no. R 598.29 HAN); G. C. Madoc, An Introduction to Malayan Birds (Kuala Lumpur: Malayan Nature, 1947), 19 (Call no. RCLOS 598.29595 MAD-[GBH]); Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67.
9. King and Dickinson, Birds of South-east Asia, 163; Madoc, Introduction to Malayan Birds, 21.
10. M. W. F. Tweedie, Common Birds of the Malay Peninsula (Kuala Lumpur: Longman Malaysia, 1970), 4 (Call no. RSEA 598.29595 TWE); Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67; King and Dickinson, Birds of South-east Asia, 163.
11. King and Dickinson, Birds of South-east Asia, 163; C. A. Gibson-Hill, Notes on the Sea Birds Breeding in Malayan Waters (Singapore: Raffles Museum, 1950), 29 (Call no. RCLOS 598.29595 GIB-[GBH]); del Hoyo, Elliott and Sargatal, eds., Handbook of the Birds, 652.
12. King and Dickinson, Birds of South-east Asia, 163.
13. Gibson-Hill, Notes on the Sea Birds, 24; del Hoyo, Elliott and Sargatal, eds., Handbook of the Birds, 652.
14. S. H. Deng, T. K. Lee and Y. C. Wee, “Black-Naped Terns (Sterna sumatrana Raffles, 1822) Mobbing a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758)Nature in Singapore, 1 (2008): 117–27.
15. Gibson-Hill, Notes on the Sea Birds, 27.
16. Madoc, Introduction to Malayan Birds, 19; Tweedie, Common Birds of the Malay Peninsula, 4.
17. Gibson-Hill, Notes on the Sea Birds, 27; Madoc, Introduction to Malayan Birds, 19; Tweedie, Common Birds of the Malay Peninsula, 4; Wells, Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, 315; Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67.
18. Dominic Nathan, “Nature Society Wants Khatib Bongsu and Senoko Conserved,” Straits Times, 16 June 1993, 19 (From NewspaperSG); Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67; Briffett, Birds of Singapore, 38.
19. Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67.
20. Madoc,
Introduction to Malayan Birds, 19; Tweedie, Common Birds of the Malay Peninsula, 4; Deng, Lee and Wee, “Black-Naped Terns.”
21. Deng, Lee and Wee, “Black-Naped Terns.”
22. del Hoyo, Elliott and Sargatal, eds., Handbook of the Birds, 652.
23. Peter K.L. Ng, Richard T. Corlett and Hugh T.W. Tan, eds., Singapore Biodiversity: An Encyclopedia of the Natural Environment and Sustainable Development (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2011), 479. (Call no. RSING 333.95095957 SIN)
24. Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67; del Hoyo, Elliott and Sargatal, eds., Handbook of the Birds, 624.
25. King and Dickinson, Birds of South-east Asia, 163; Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67; del Hoyo, Elliott and Sargatal, eds., Handbook of the Birds, 652; Lim Kim Seng and Alfred Chia, The Avifauna of Singapore (Singapore: Nature Society (Singapore) & Bird Group Records Committee, 2009), 203. (Call no. RSING 598.095957 LIM)
26. Gibson-Hill, Notes on the Sea Birds, 24; King and Dickinson, Birds of South-east Asia, 163; Wells, Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, 315.
27. Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67; “Singapore: A Tropical Micro-Dot Island with Colourful Birds and a Macro Wonder World” PSA Journal 73, no. 7 (July 2007): 28–33. (From ProQuest via NLB’s eResources website); “Sterna sumatrana Raffles, 1822,” National Parks Board, accessed 2013.
28. Lim and Chia, Avifauna of Singapore, 203.
29. Wells, Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, 316.
30. Deng, Lee and Wee, “Black-Naped Terns.”
31. Lim Kim Seng, Pocket Checklist of the Birds of the Republic of Singapore (Singapore: Nature Society (Singapore), Bird Group Records Committee, 1999), 38. (Call no. RCLOS 598.095957 LIM)
32. Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67; Lim, Pocket Checklist of the Birds, 38.
33. G.W.H. Davison, P.K.L. Ng and H.C. Ho, The Singapore Red Data Book: Threatened Plants & Animals of Singapore (Singapore: Nature Society, 2008), 183. (Call no. RSING 591.68095957 SIN)
34. Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67.
35. Wells, Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, 315.
36. Madoc, Introduction to Malayan Birds, 19; Tweedie, Common Birds of the Malay Peninsula, 4.
37. Yong and Lim, Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds, 67.



Further resource
Craig Robson, Birds of South-East Asia, 2nd ed (London, Christopher Helm, 2015), 345. (Call no. RSING 598.0959 ROB)



The information in this article is valid as at July 2019 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.


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