The terns [1] or sea swallow [2] ( lat. Sterna ) are a genus of birds from the gull family ( Laridae ) [3] , distinguished by a long straight beak without a waxe and a hook at the end and a weakly bent back. All terns fly beautifully, live on the shores of the seas and fresh water, feed on fish and other aquatic animals that they catch, rushing at them from above. The nests are simple; the clutch consists of 1–3 eggs.
In the tern, the plumage of the forehead reaches the nostrils, the swimming membranes with moderate cutting, the tail is forked, the belly is white. 36 widespread species.
Common tern ( Sterna hirundo ) 40 cm; the beak is barely with a head, the upper side is ash-gray, the bottom is white, on the 1st flywheel is a dark stripe, the head is black in summer, the forehead is white in winter and the back of the head is white and black, the beak is red with black end, the legs are red. It lives on the shores of seas and fresh waters in Europe from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean Sea , nests also in the Azores , Canary Islands and Madeira , in Asia from 64 ° C. sh. to Kashmir , in America from Labrador to Florida and Texas , and in the winter it flies to South America.
As of February 2018, the genus includes 13 species [1] [3] :
- Sterna acuticauda JE Gray, 1831 - Black - bellied Tern
- Sterna aurantia JE Gray, 1831 - Indian Tern
- Sterna dougallii Montagu, 1813 - Pink Tern
- Sterna forsteri Nuttall, 1834 - Tern Forstera
- Sterna hirundinacea R. Lesson, 1831 - South American Tern
- Sterna hirundo Linnaeus, 1758 - Common Tern , or Common Tern
- Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan, 1763 - Arctic Tern
- Sterna repressa Hartert, 1916 - Arabian tern , or Red Sea white-faced black tern
- Sterna striata JF Gmelin, 1789 - White - faced Tern
- Sterna sumatrana Raffles, 1822 - Fair tern , or dark-occipital tern
- Sterna trudeaui Audubon, 1838 - Terde Trudeau
- Sterna virgata Cabanis, 1875 - Kerguelen Tern
- Sterna vittata JF Gmelin, 1789 - Antarctic Tern
Some species previously attributed to the genus of terns, as a result of molecular genetic studies, were transferred to the genera Onychoprion , Sternula , Thalasseus [3] .
