Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus)

Schreiber, E. A.; Feare, Christopher J.; Harrington, Brian; Murray, B. G.; Robertson, W. B.; Robertson, M.; Woolfenden, Glen E.

doi:10.2173/bna.sooter1.02

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Inshore species also have the highest diversity of prey among seabird taxa, a characteristic that may buffer them against decreases in the availability of any single prey type (Diamond 1983). In contrast, pelagic foraging species generally feed on similar prey while in large multispecies flocks (Jaquemet et al 2004) often at vast distances from breeding colonies (Ballance and Pitman 1999, Schreiber et al 2002, Surman and Wooller 2003.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of tropical seabirds to El Niño precursors

Devney

Short

Congdon

2009

Ecology

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Intense El Niño events severely impact seabird populations, often months in advance of peak temperature anomalies. The trophic mechanisms responsible for these impacts are unknown but are assumed to operate at seasonal scales and to be linked to ocean productivity changes. Precursors to El Niño events include changes in both sea-surface temperature and the depth of the 20 degrees C thermocline. Foraging piscivorous seabirds are known to be sensitive to both thermocline depth and sea-surface temperature change, but the potential influence of these phenomena on breeding dynamics is unknown. Using 18 years of data on three seabirds of the western tropical Pacific, we show that pelagic seabird breeding participation is directly and independently related to changes in both surface chlorophyll concentration and thermocline depth that occur well in advance of El Niño generated sea-surface temperature anomalies. In contrast, breeding in an inshore foraging species is not correlated with any environmental/biological parameters investigated. These findings demonstrate that El Niño related phenomena do not affect seabird prey dynamics solely via productivity shifts at seasonal scales, nor in similar ways across different seabird foraging guilds. Our results also suggest that population declines observed in the western tropical Pacific may be directly related to the frequency and intensity of El Niño anomalies over the study period.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of tropical seabirds to El Niño precursors

Devney

Short

Congdon

2009

Ecology

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“…Our study shows that birds never spent the night sitting on the sea surface, while they often did so during the day. This suggests that there is a high selective pressure not to stay on the sea surface at night, as in other tropical seabird species such as frigatebirds or sooty terns, which spend the whole night at sea in flight (Schreiber et al 2002;Weimerskirch et al , 2004a. Predation, notably by sharks, may be the major reason for such behaviour but the inability to forage at night may also be involved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The three-dimensional flight of red-footed boobies: adaptations to foraging in a tropical environment?

et al. 2005

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In seabirds a broad variety of morphologies, flight styles and feeding methods exist as an adaptation to optimal foraging in contrasted marine environments for a wide variety of prey types. Because of the low productivity of tropical waters it is expected that specific flight and foraging techniques have been selected there, but very few data are available. By using five different types of high-precision miniaturized logger (global positioning systems, accelerometers, time depth recorders, activity recorders, altimeters) we studied the way a seabird is foraging over tropical waters. Red-footed boobies are foraging in the day, never foraging at night, probably as a result of predation risks. They make extensive use of wind conditions, flying preferentially with crosswinds at median speed of 38 km h À1, reaching highest speeds with tail winds. They spent 66% of the foraging trip in flight, using a flap-glide flight, and gliding 68% of the flight. Travelling at low costs was regularly interrupted by extremely active foraging periods where birds are very frequently touching water for landing, plunge diving or surface diving (30 landings h À1 ). Dives were shallow (maximum 2.4 m) but frequent (4.5 dives h À1 ), most being plunge dives. While chasing for very mobile prey like flying fishes, boobies have adopted a very active and specific hunting behaviour, but the use of wind allows them to reduce travelling cost by their extensive use of gliding. During the foraging and travelling phases birds climb regularly to altitudes of 20-50 m to spot prey or congeners. During the final phase of the flight, they climb to high altitudes, up to 500 m, probably to avoid attacks by frigatebirds along the coasts. This study demonstrates the use by boobies of a series of very specific flight and activity patterns that have probably been selected as adaptations to the conditions of tropical waters.

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“…Sooty Terns were selected as the focal species. The Sooty Tern is an abundant pan-tropical species that nests on many islands with introduced rodents (Woodward 1972, Feare 1976, Harrison et al 1983, Ratcliffe et al 1999, Schreiber et al 2002). Sooty Terns nest in large colonies with ample population sizes that are suitable for a control treatment design.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bait consumption by Sooty Terns: implications for island eradication programmes

Sztukowski

Kesler

2012

Bird Conservation International

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SummaryRat Rattus spp. predation is widely recognised as a major threat to insular seabird populations. Rodent eradication programmes have advanced over the last two decades with purported benefits to ecosystems and seabird conservation. However, the danger of non-target poisoning to seabirds has rarely been examined, despite hundreds of insular eradication efforts. We initiated research to assess the risk of rodenticide bait to nesting Sooty Terns Sterna fuscata on Wake Atoll Complex. Placebo bait with a fluorescing dye was used in a control treatment design to track exposure and ingestion. Camera-based observations and faecal samples, post-mortem inspections and live chick observations suggested that bait exposure and consumption occurred, but that it was infrequent. Results indicated that poison bait eradication should occur outside the chick rearing phase to minimise risks to nesting seabirds. Our study also documents previously unreported environmental fluorescence, which may increase false positive results in pre-eradication assessments of bait palatability, bait uptake rates, and bait application methods that use inactive fluorescing test baits. We recommend that future conservation efforts begin with an evaluation of environmentallybased fluorescence before formal biomarker studies.

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Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus)

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Sensitivity of tropical seabirds to El Niño precursors

Sensitivity of tropical seabirds to El Niño precursors

The three-dimensional flight of red-footed boobies: adaptations to foraging in a tropical environment?

Bait consumption by Sooty Terns: implications for island eradication programmes

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