Cabot's tern

Cabot's tern
	In non-breeding plumage, Venice Beach, Florida
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Laridae
Genus:	Thalasseus
Species:	T. acuflavidus
Binomial name
	Thalasseus acuflavidus; (Cabot, 1847)
Synonyms
	Thalasseus sandvicensis acuflavidus Thalasseus acuflavidus; Thalasseus sandvicensis eurygnatha;

Cabot's tern (Thalasseus acuflavidus) is a tern in the family Laridae formerly considered as a subspecies of the Sandwich tern. It has since been shown to be more closely related to the elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans).[1] The genus name is from Ancient Greek Thalasseus, "fisherman" from thalassa, "sea". The specific acuflavida is Latin from acus, "needle", and flavidus, "yellowish".[2] The IOC recognizes the bird as distinct, but most other taxonomists, including both committees of the AOU, consider it conspecific with the Sandwich tern.[3]

The former species, T. s. eurygnatha (Saunders 1876), is sometimes treated as a separate species called the Cayenne tern (T. eurygnatha), which breeds on the Atlantic coast of South America from Argentina north to the Caribbean, intergrading with T. acuflavidus in the north of its range. The DNA analysis showed that Cayenne tern differed genetically from T. acuflavidus, but the difference was not sufficient to confirm it as a definite separate species.[4]

Distribution and subspecies

The species is widely distributed in the Americas.
There are two subspecies:

T. a. acuflavidus (Cabot, 1847) − eastern North America to southern Caribbean.
T. a. eurygnathus (Saunders, 1876) − Cayenne tern, islands off Venezuela and the Guianas, northern and eastern South America.

Gallery

Fishing near Tampa Bay, Florida
In flight, Sanibel, Florida
In North Carolina
South of Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
From the Crossley ID Guide Eastern Birds

References

Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Noddies, gulls, terns, auks". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 31, 383. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
"57th supplement of the AOU". American Ornithologists Union. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
Bridge, Eli S.; Jones, Andrew W.; Baker, Allan J. (2005). "A phylogenetic framework for the terns (Sternini) inferred from mtDNA sequences: implications for taxonomy and plumage evolution". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 35 (2): 459–469. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.12.010. PMID 15804415.

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[ioc-1] Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Noddies, gulls, terns, auks". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 24 June 2019.

[job-2] Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 31, 383. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.

[3] "57th supplement of the AOU". American Ornithologists Union. Retrieved 2016-09-07.

[Bridge2005-4] Bridge, Eli S.; Jones, Andrew W.; Baker, Allan J. (2005). "A phylogenetic framework for the terns (Sternini) inferred from mtDNA sequences: implications for taxonomy and plumage evolution". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 35 (2): 459–469. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.12.010. PMID 15804415.