West African crested tern

The West African crested tern (Thalasseus albididorsalis)[1] is a bird species in the family Laridae.

West African crested tern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
Genus: Thalasseus
Species:
T. albididorsalis
Binomial name
Thalasseus albididorsalis
(Hartert, 1921)

Distribution

It breeds in subtropical coastal parts of the world on the coasts of Mauritania to Guinea.

Description

Like all Thalasseus terns, the West African crested tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, usually from saline environments. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favoured by Arctic tern. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.

It was suspected by wildlife conservationists in The Gambia that the West African birds were a separate species and analysis of DNA by scientists at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Montpellier have confirmed that the West African albididorsalis is a separate species. Feathers and other remains were collected from Mauritania and from islands off Tanji Bird Reserve, The Gambia and the DNA sequences shows the West African royal tern is closer to the lesser crested tern (Thalasseus bengalensis) than royal terns on the other side of the Atlantic.[2]

References
  1. Bridge, E. S.; Jones, A. W. & Baker, A. J. (2005). A phylogenetic framework for the terns (Sternini) inferred from mtDNA sequences: implications for taxonomy and plumage evolution Archived 2006-07-20 at the Wayback Machine. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35: 459–469.
  2. Collinson, J.M.; Dufour, P.; Hamza, A.A.; Lawrie, Y.; Elliott, M.; Barlow, C.; Crochet, P.-A. (2017). "When morphology is not reflected by molecular phylogeny: the case of three 'orange-billed terns' Thalasseus maximus, Thalasseus bergii and Thalasseus bengalensis (Charadriiformes: Laridae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 121 (2): 439–445. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blw049.
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