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San Nicolas Bay Reef Islands
The San Nicolas Bay Reef Islands lie just off the south-eastern end of the island of Aruba, a constituent island nation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Dutch Caribbean, adjacent to the island's second largest city San Nicolaas, from which it separated by a shallow lagoon. They form a 248 ha site encompassing five small boulder coral islets, on a substrate of submerged reef, which can vary in size and shape following winter storms and hurricanes. Three of the islets are covered with salt-resistant plants dominated by buttonwood, sea purslane and bay cedar. Aruban whiptail lizards have been recorded there. The area has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International as a breeding site for several species of terns. Birds Birds for which the IBA was designated include Sandwich, roseate, common, sooty, bridled, least and royal terns, as well as black and brown noddies. The main nesting season is from early April to mid-August. The main threat to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Nicolaas
San Nicolaas ( nl, Sint Nicolaas) is southeast of Oranjestad, and is Aruba's second largest city. it has a population of 15,283, most of whom originate from the British Caribbean and rest of the Caribbean. History According to oral tradition, San Nicolaas was named after a Mr. Nicolaas van der Biest (1808–1873), who owned a big piece of the land there.Johannes Hartog. '' Aruba Past and Present: From the Time of the Indians Until Today''. D. J. DeWit; 1961. p. 152. Landowners were then addressed by their subordinates by their first names preceded by 'Shon' meaning 'master'. So he was called 'Shon Nicolas', as was the area. It is thought that the change from Shon Nicolas to San Nicolaas was due to the influence of Spanish. Many Afro-Arubans settled in San Nicolaas during the 1920s, attracted by the many jobs associated with the oil refinery. Oil Refinery Known as the island's Sunrise Side, San Nicolaas was once a bustling company town, when Lago Oil and Transport Comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roseate Tern
The roseate tern (''Sterna dougallii'') is a species of tern in the family Laridae. The genus name ''Sterna'' is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific ''dougallii'' refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDougall (1777–1814). "Roseate" refers to the bird's pink breast in breeding plumage. Taxonomy English naturalist George Montagu described the roseate tern in 1813. Genetically, it is most closely related to the white-fronted tern (''S. striata''), with their common ancestor a sister lineage to the black-naped tern (''S. sumatrana''). This species has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in bill colour and minor plumage details. ''S. d. dougallii '' breeds on the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America, and winters south to the Caribbean and west Africa. Both the European and North American populations have been in long term decline, though active conservation measures have reversed the decline in the last few years at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Of Aruba
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. Bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laughing Gull
The laughing gull (''Leucophaeus atricilla'') is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named for its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. The two subspecies are: ''L. a. megalopterus'' – which can be seen from southeast Canada down to Central America, and ''L. a. atricilla'' which appears from the West Indies to the Venezuelan islands. The laughing gull was long placed in the genus '' Larus'' until its present placement in ''Leucophaeus'', which follows the American Ornithologists' Union. Name The genus name ''Leucophaeus'' is from Ancient Greek λευκός : ''leukós'', "white", and φαιός : ''phaios'', "dusky". The specific ''atricilla'' is from Latin ''atra'', "black", " unlucky" or "malevolent" and ''cilla'', "tail". According to the ''Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names'', Linnaeus may have intended to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown Noddy
The brown noddy or common noddy (''Anous stolidus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related black noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black. The brown noddy is a tropical seabird with a worldwide distribution, ranging from Hawaii to the Tuamotu Archipelago and Australia in the Pacific Ocean, from the Red Sea to the Seychelles and Australia in the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean to Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic Ocean. The brown noddy is colonial, usually nesting on elevated situations on cliffs or in short trees or shrubs. It only occasionally nests on the ground. A single egg is laid by the female of a pair each breeding season. In India, the brown noddy is protected in the PM Sayeed Marine Birds Conservation Reserve. Taxonomy The first formal description of the brown noddy was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Noddy
The black noddy or white-capped noddy (''Anous minutus'') is a seabird from the family Laridae. It is a medium-sized species of tern with black plumage and a white cap. It closely resembles the lesser noddy (''Anous tenuirostris'') with which it was at one time considered conspecific. The black noddy has slightly darker plumage and dark rather than pale lores. Taxonomy The black noddy was first formally described by German naturalist and lawyer Friedrich Boie in 1844 under its current binomial name. The genus name ''Anous'' is ancient Greek for "stupid" or "foolish". The specific name ''minutus'' is the Latin for "small". There are seven subspecies: *''A. m. worcesteri'' (McGregor, 1911) – Cavilli Island and Tubbataha Reef (Sulu Sea) *''A. m. minutus'' Boie, 1844 – northeast Australia and New Guinea to Tuamotu Archipelago *''A. m. marcusi'' (Bryan, 1903) – Marcus and Wake Islands through Micronesia to the Caroline Islands *''A. m. melanogenys'' Gray, 1846 – Hawaiian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Tern
The royal tern (''Thalasseus maximus'') is a tern in the family Laridae. The species is endemic to the Americas, though strays have been identified in Europe.Buckley, P. A. and F. G. Buckley (2020). Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.royter1.01 Retrieved April 17, 2021 Taxonomy The royal tern was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'' which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Least Tern
The least tern (''Sternula antillarum'') is a species of tern that breeds in North America and locally in northern South America. It is closely related to, and was formerly often considered conspecific with, the little tern of the Old World. Other close relatives include the yellow-billed tern and Peruvian tern, both from South America. It is a small tern, long, with a wingspan of , and weighing . The upper parts are a fairly uniform pale gray, and the underparts white. The head is white, with a black cap and line through the eye to the base of the bill, and a small white forehead patch above the bill; in winter, the white forehead is more extensive, with a smaller and less sharply defined black cap. The bill is yellow with a small black tip in summer, all blackish in winter. The legs are yellowish. The wings are mostly pale gray, but with conspicuous black markings on their outermost primaries. It flies over water with fast, jerky wingbeats and a distinctive hunchback appeara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bridled Tern
The bridled tern (''Onychoprion anaethetus'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans. The scientific name is from Ancient Greek. The genus comes from ' meaning "claw" or "nail", and , meaning "saw". The specific ''anaethetus'' means "senseless, stupid". Description This is a medium-sized tern, at 30–32 cm in length and with a 77–81 cm wingspan similar to the common tern in size, but more heavily built. The wings and deeply forked tail are long, and it has dark grey upperparts and white underparts. The forehead and eyebrows are white, as is a striking collar on the hindneck. It has black legs and bill. Juvenile bridled terns are scaly grey above and pale below. This species is unlikely to be confused with any tern apart from the similarly dark-backed sooty tern and the spectacled tern from the Tropical Pacific. It is paler-backed than that sooty, (but not as pale as the grey-backed) and has a narrower white forehead and a pale n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sooty Tern
The sooty tern (''Onychoprion fuscatus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans, returning to land only to breed on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Taxonomy The sooty tern was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766 as ''Sterna fuscata'', bearing this name for many years until the genus ''Sterna'' was split up. It is now known as ''Onychoprion fuscatus''. The genus name is from ancient Greek , "claw" or "nail", and , "saw". The specific ''fuscatus'' is Latin for "dark". Colloquially, it is known as the wideawake tern or just wideawake. This refers to the incessant calls produced by a colony of these birds, as does the Hawaiian name ''ʻewa ʻewa'' which roughly means " cacophony". In most of Polynesia its name is ''manutara'' or similar – literally "tern-bird", though it might be better rendered in English as "the tern" or "common tern". This refers to the fact that wherever Polynesian seafarers went on their long voyages, they usua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Tern
The common tern (''Sterna hirundo'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black. There are several similar species, including the partly sympatric Arctic tern, which can be separated on plumage details, leg and bill colour, or vocalisations. Breeding in a wider range of habitats than any of its relatives, the common tern nests on any flat, poorly vegetated surface close to water, including beaches and islands, and it readily adapts to artificial substrates such as floating rafts. The nest may be a bare scrape in sand or gravel, but it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandwich Tern
The Sandwich tern (''Thalasseus sandvicensis'') is a tern in the family Laridae. It is very closely related to the lesser crested tern (''T. bengalensis''), Chinese crested tern (''T. bernsteini''), Cabot's tern (''T. acuflavidus''), and elegant tern (''T. elegans'') and has been known to interbreed with the lesser crested. It breeds in the Palearctic from Europe to the Caspian Sea wintering to South Africa, India and Sri Lanka. The Sandwich tern is a medium-large tern with grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow-tipped black bill and a shaggy black crest which becomes less extensive in winter with a white crown. Young birds bear grey and brown scalloped plumage on their backs and wings. It is a vocal bird. It nests in a ground scrape and lays one to three eggs. Like all ''Thalasseus'' terns, the Sandwich tern feeds by plunge diving for fish, usually in marine environments, and the offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display. Taxonomy Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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