Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Laridae > Thalasseus > Thalasseus maximus

Thalasseus maximus (Royal Tern)

Synonyms: Sterna maxima (homotypic); Thalasseus maxima; Thalasseus maximus checklist

Wikipedia Abstract

The royal tern (Thalasseus maximus) is a seabird in the tern family Sternidae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek Thalasseus, "fisherman", from thalassa, "sea". The specific maximus is Latin for '"greatest".
View Wikipedia Record: Thalasseus maximus

Infraspecies

Thalasseus maximus albididorsalis
Thalasseus maximus maximus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
0
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
8
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 2.63504
EDGE Score: 1.29062
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  424 grams
Birth Weight [3]  56 grams
Female Weight [1]  385 grams
Male Weight [1]  1.023 lbs (464 g)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  20.5 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Beaches and estuaries, Coastal marine
Wintering Geography [2]  Widespread Coastal
Wintering Habitat [2]  Beaches and estuaries, Coastal marine
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Fish [4]  80 %
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  20 %
Forages - Water Surface [4]  100 %
Clutch Size [5]  1
Clutches / Year [3]  1
Fledging [1]  33 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  250,000
Incubation [3]  28 days
Maximum Longevity [3]  29 years
Migration [6]  Intercontinental
Wing Span [5]  3.772 feet (1.15 m)
Female Maturity [3]  3 years
Male Maturity [3]  3 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Ilhéu da Praia - Ilha Graciosa 30 Portugal      

Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Predators

Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle)[7]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Capillaria contorta[8]
Cardiocephaloides medioconiger[8]
Ornithobilharzia canaliculata[8]
Pachytrema sanguineum[8]
Stictodora lariformicola[8]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3de 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
♦ 4Hamish 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
♦ 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.
♦ 6Myers, 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
♦ 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.
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
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