Roseate Tern

Status Rare in summer. Breeds. Never recorded as common in the province, its numbers have decreased since 1962. Evidence that it was formerly more plentiful is found in some earlier records. For instance, on 9 June 1906 Harold F. Tufts visited Noddy Island, one of the Mud Islands group lying off the coast from Yarmouth, where he found a thriving colony of Roseate Terns (but he does not mention its size). Brooks (1933) tells of visiting Indian Island, Lunenburg County, on 20 August 1930, where he found an estimated 125 pairs of Roseates nesting in a colony with Common and Arctic Terns; on 12 June 1937 there were only about 20 Roseate Terns in the colony, and on 8 July 1938 there were none, the site having been taken over by a horde of Herring Gulls (R.W. Tufts).

In 1956 Marie Henry banded a Roseate Tern chick near Yarmouth on Little Bald Island where a few were nesting. They have long been known to nest among other terns on a few islands in Shelburne, Queens, Lunenburg and Halifax counties, but these colonies have not been systematically visited. On 4 June 1957 a small colony was found on Thrum Cap, an islet off Barren Island, Guysborough County. Dwight (1895) and Saunders (1902) found it breeding on Sable Island. In 1971 Anthony R. Lock estimated 125 pairs there; in recent years these have dwindled to a few pairs (A.R. Lock). Roseate Terns reach Nova Scotia in mid-May (the earliest report is of a bird on Sable Island on 13 May 1971). The fall migration takes place between mid-July and late August (latest sighting, from Sable Island, on 27 September 1970).

Description Length: 36-43 cm. Adults in summer: Pearly gray mantle across back and wings; crown black; underparts white, tinted with a delicate suffusion of pink; tail entirely white, more deeply forked and longer than in Common Tern; bill black, often more or less reddish base; feet red. Adults in winter: Similar but forehead is streaked with white or mottled with black; underparts entirely white. Juveniles: Distinctly black legs and scaly backs.

Breeding Nest: A depression in the ground sometimes lined sparsely with dry grass or other vegetable matter; in colonies, usually mixed with Common and Arctic Terns. Eggs: 2 normally, not readily distinguished from those of Common and Arctic Terns.

Range Breeds mainly on warm-water coasts in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. In North America breeds along the Atlantic seaboard from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean. Winters from the West Indies to Brazil.

Remarks It can be distinguished in flight from the Common and Arctic Terns by its longer and more deeply forked tail, its more slender appearance, its black or nearly black bill and its grating call.

The decline of the species in Nova Scotia since 1962 was part of a general decline over the North Atlantic, which came about through the depredations of gulls, the destruction of beaches on which it nests and human persecution on its wintering grounds. At present, there are conflicting opinions on whether the Roseate Tern continues to decline in numbers.