Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Laridae > Thalasseus > Thalasseus elegansThalasseus elegans (Elegant Tern)Synonyms: Sterna elegans; Thalasseus elegans checklist Language: Spanish The elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans, syn. Sterna elegans - see Bridge et al., 2005) is a seabird of the tern family, Sternidae. It breeds on the Pacific coasts of the southern United States and Mexico and winters south to Peru, Ecuador and Chile. The elegant tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, almost invariably from the sea, like most Thalasseus terns. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favoured by the Arctic tern. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display. |
Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) Unique (100) Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) Unique & Vulnerable (100) ED Score: 2.73112 EDGE Score: 2.00986 |
| Adult Weight [1] | 251 grams | | Birth Weight [1] | 26 grams |  | | Breeding Habitat [2] | Beaches and estuaries, Coastal marine | | Wintering Geography [2] | Pacific Coast | | Wintering Habitat [2] | Beaches and estuaries, Coastal marine | | | Diet [3] | Piscivore | | Diet - Fish [3] | 100 % | | Forages - Underwater [3] | 100 % | | | Female Maturity [1] | 3 years | | Male Maturity [1] | 3 years | | | Clutch Size [1] | 1 | | Clutches / Year [1] | 1 | | Global Population (2017 est.) [2] | 180,000 | | Incubation [1] | 26 days | | Maximum Longevity [1] | 16 years | | Migration [4] | Intercontinental | | Wing Span [5] | 31 inches (.78 m) |
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| Name |
Countries |
Ecozone |
Biome |
Species |
Report |
Climate |
Land
Use |
|
Atacama desert |
Chile |
Neotropic |
Deserts and Xeric Shrublands |
 |
 |
 |
 |
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California coastal sage and chaparral |
Mexico, United States |
Nearctic |
Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub |
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California interior chaparral and woodlands |
United States |
Nearctic |
Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub |
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California montane chaparral and woodlands |
United States |
Nearctic |
Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub |
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Central American dry forests |
Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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|
Chilean matorral |
Chile |
Neotropic |
Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub |
|
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Chocó-Darién moist forests |
Colombia, Panama |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Costa Rican seasonal moist forests |
Costa Rica |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Ecuadorian dry forests |
Ecuador |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Guayaquil flooded grasslands |
Ecuador |
Neotropic |
Flooded Grasslands and Savannas |
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Gulf of California xeric scrub |
Mexico |
Nearctic |
Deserts and Xeric Shrublands |
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Isthmian-Pacific moist forests |
Costa Rica, Panama |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Jalisco dry forests |
Mexico |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Northern California coastal forests |
United States |
Nearctic |
Temperate Coniferous Forests |
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Northern Mesoamerican Pacific mangroves |
Mexico |
Neotropic |
Mangroves |
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Sechura desert |
Peru |
Neotropic |
Deserts and Xeric Shrublands |
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Sinaloan dry forests |
Mexico |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Sonoran desert |
Mexico, United States |
Nearctic |
Deserts and Xeric Shrublands |
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South American Pacific mangroves |
Colombia, Panama, Ecuador |
Neotropic |
Mangroves |
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Southern Mesoamerican Pacific mangroves |
Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama |
Neotropic |
Mangroves |
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Southern Pacific dry forests |
Mexico |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Tumbes-Piura dry forests |
Ecuador, Peru |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Valdivian temperate forests |
Chile, Argentina |
Neotropic |
Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests |
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Western Ecuador moist forests |
Colombia, Ecuador |
Neotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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| Name |
IUCN Category |
Area acres |
Location |
Species |
Website |
Climate |
Land Use |
|
Alto Golfo de California y Delta del Rio Colorado Biosphere Reserve |
VI |
2320468 |
Sonora, Mexico |
|
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|
|
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Cabrillo National Monument |
V |
149 |
California, United States |
|
 |
|
|
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California Coast Ranges Biosphere Reserve |
|
153447 |
California, United States |
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Elkhorn Slough Preserve Nature Conservancy - Preserve |
Ia |
964 |
California, United States |
|
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Farallon National Wildlife Refuge |
IV |
352 |
California, United States |
|
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Golden Gate National Recreation Area |
V |
26135 |
California, United States |
|
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La Amistad International Park National Park |
II |
541617 |
Panama, Costa Rica |
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Point Reyes National Seashore |
II |
27068 |
California, United States |
|
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Redwood National Park |
II |
77867 |
California, United States |
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Reserva de la Biosfera El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve |
VI |
6176727 |
Mexico |
|
|
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Reserva del Noroeste Biosphere Reserve |
|
571807 |
Peru |
|
|
|
|
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Santa Cruz Island Preserve Nature Conservancy - Preserve |
|
46021 |
California, United States |
|
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|
|
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Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area |
V |
38440 |
California, United States |
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| Name |
Location |
IBA Criteria |
Website |
Climate |
Land Use |
|
Laguna de Ite |
Peru |
A1, A2, A3, A4i, A4iii |
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Lagunas de Ecuasal-Salinas |
Ecuador |
A1, A2, A4i, A4iii |
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Reserva Nacional de Paracas |
Peru |
A1, A2, A3, A4i, A4ii |
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San Diego Bay |
USA |
A1, A4i |
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Terminal Island Tern Colony |
USA |
A1, A4i |
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| Name |
Location |
Endemic |
Species |
Website |
|
California Floristic Province |
Mexico, United States |
No |
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Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests |
Chile |
No |
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Mesoamerica |
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama |
No |
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Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena |
Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru |
No |
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 Attributes / relations provided by ♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774 ♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018. ♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027 ♦ 4Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org♦ 5del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ♦ 6Szoboszlai AI, Thayer JA, Wood SA, Sydeman WJ, Koehn LE (2015) Forage species in predator diets: synthesis of data from the California Current. Ecological Informatics 29(1): 45-56.
Szoboszlai AI, Thayer JA, Wood SA, Sydeman WJ, Koehn LE (2015) Data from: Forage species in predator diets: synthesis of data from the California Current. Dryad Digital Repository. ♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics. Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database |
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0
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