Gygis microrhyncha
The Little White Tern (Gygis microrhyncha) is an enchanting and diminutive seabird, often considered a distinct species from the more widespread White Tern (Gygis alba) due to its notably smaller size and delicate bill structure. Averaging 20-23 cm in length with a wingspan of 45-50 cm and weighing around 45-60 grams, it is entirely clad in pristine white plumage, giving it a ghost-like appearance against the tropical skies. Its most striking field marks include large, black eyes encircled by...
This tern is an exclusively marine species, found primarily in tropical oceanic environments, favoring remote coral atolls and small, vegetated islands for breeding and roosting.
Their diet consists predominantly of small surface-schooling pelagic fish, such as anchovies and sardines, supplemented occasionally by tiny squid and marine crustaceans, captured by plunge-diving.
Little White Terns are highly diurnal, spending their days foraging over open ocean and returning to their breeding islands to roost in colonies, often within Pisonia grandis trees. They employ a graceful aerial plunge-diving technique to snatch small fish and marine invertebrates from the water'...
The Little White Tern (Gygis microrhyncha) has a restricted distribution primarily within the remote atolls of the central Pacific Ocean. Its core breeding range is centered on the Line Islands, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Fanning (Tabuaeran), and Washington (Teraina), as well as the...
Least Concern
- The Little White Tern famously lays its single egg directly on a bare tree branch, rock ledge, or even man-made structures without building any nest material whatsoever. - Its eggs are often described as semi-translucent, allowing light to pass through them, a unique adaptation for their precar...