Bird Guide: Water Birds, Game Birds, and Birds of Prey East of the Rockies

by Chester A. Reed

Notes.—A sharp, metallic clattering “cheep, cheep.”

Nest.—Two or three eggs are laid upon the bare sand. They are buffy-gray, sharply specked with blackish (1.25 × .95).

Range.—Breeds north to Mass., the Great Lakes and Calif.; winters south of the United States.

SOOTY TERN

75. Sterna fuscata. 17 in.

Adult in summer.—Above sooty-black, except the white outer tail feathers. Crown, line through the eye, bill and feet, black; forehead and underparts white; eye red. Young birds are smoky slate color all over, with the tail feathers, and some on the back and breast, tipped with whitish. This is the “egg bird” of tropical countries, thousands of their eggs being taken for food.

Note.—A nasal “ker-wacky-wak” (Chapman).

Nest.—A single egg deposited in a hollow in the sand; it is creamy-white, spotted with blackish-brown.

Range.—Tropical countries; breeds north to the Florida Keys and islands in the Gulf of Mexico; sometimes wanders north to New England.