Bird
Bird
Gull-billed Tern
Gelochelidon nilotica
The Gull-billed Tern is an unusual tern that hunts more like a gull or a kite than a typical plunge-diving tern, coursing low over marshes and fields to snatch large insects and small vertebrates rather than diving for fish.
The Gull-billed Tern is an unusual tern that hunts more like a gull or a kite than a typical plunge-diving tern, coursing low over marshes and fields to snatch large insects and small vertebrates rather than diving for fish.
Identification
A medium-sized tern around 33 to 38 cm long, with pale grey upperparts, white underparts, and a stout, gull-like black bill noticeably thicker than that of most other terns, giving the species its name. In non-breeding plumage the black cap is reduced to a dark patch behind the eye.
Behaviour
Forages by coursing low over marshes, mudflats, fields, and grassland, snatching large insects, crabs, and small reptiles and amphibians from the surface or ground rather than plunge-diving for fish like most terns. It is more terrestrial in its foraging than related species, often following ploughing or grass fires to catch flushed prey.
Status in T&T
Present around coastal wetlands, mudflats, and adjacent open ground in Trinidad, generally uncommon. Not considered threatened at a global level. It is protected as native wildlife under the Conservation of Wildlife Act.
