The grey noddy or grey ternlet (''Anous albivitta'') is a

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Laridae Laridae is a family of seabirds in the order Charadriiformes that includes the gulls, terns (including white terns), noddies, and skimmers. It includes around 100 species arranged into 22 genera. They are an adaptable group of mostly aerial bird ...

. It was once regarded as a pale morph of the blue noddy (''Anous cerulea'') but is now usually considered to be a separate species.

Taxonomy

The first formal description of the grey noddy was by the French ornithologist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist, and a nephew of Napoleon. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal ...

in 1856 under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Procelsterna albivitta''. The specific name ''albivitta'' is from the Latin ''abus'' for "white" and ''vitta'' for "band" or "head-band". The grey noddy was formerly placed in the genus ''Procelsterna''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2016 found that the five noddies formed a single

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

with the grey noddy and blue noddy in ''Procelsterna'' nested within the species in the genus ''Anous''. The authors proposed that the noddies should be merged into a single genus ''Anous'' and that ''Procelsterna'' should be considered as a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

. Three

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised: *''A. a. albivitta'' ( Bonaparte, 1856): Lord Howe,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

and

Kermadec Islands The Kermadec Islands ( ; ) are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are in total area and uninhabit ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

*''A. a. skottsbergii'' ( Lönnberg, 1921): Henderson,

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

, and

Isla Salas y Gómez Isla Salas y Gómez (), also known as Isla Sala y Gómez (; ), is a small uninhabited Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean. It is sometimes considered the easternmost point in the Polynesian Triangle. Isla Salas y Gómez and its surrounding waters ...

Islands (west of Chile) *''A. a. imitatrix'' ( Mathews, 1912): San Ambrosio and San Félix Islands (west of Chile)

Description

The grey noddy is long with a wingspan of and a weight of about . The tail is fairly long and notched. The

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

is pale grey, almost white on the head and underparts but darker on the back, tail and wings. The wings have dark tips and a white hind edge and are mainly white underneath. The eye is black and appears large due to the black patch in front of it. There is a white patch behind the eye. The thin, pointed bill is black and the legs and feet are also black apart from pale yellow webs. Juvenile birds are browner than the adults and have darker, more contrasting

flight feather Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...

s. The grey noddy is usually silent but has a soft, purring call.

Distribution

It occurs in subtropical and warm temperate waters of the south

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The

''A. a. albivitta'' breeds on

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland Port ...

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

, northern

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

(particularly the

) and southern

(on 'Ata and probably 'Eua). ''A. a. skottsbergii'' is found on Henderson Island,

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

and Sala y Gómez. ''A. a. imitatrix'' breeds on the Desventuradas Islands off the coast of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. Some specimens have also been found in Australia, Pitcairn Islands, San Abrosio and San Feliz Islands and Ellice Islands.

Behaviour

It feeds in shallow water, not moving far from the breeding colonies. It gathers in large feeding flocks which can contain thousands of individuals. They feed by hovering over the water and dropping down to pick food from the surface.

Plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

forms the bulk of the diet and small

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

are also eaten. Breeding takes place in colonies on rocky islands. The

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...

site is a sheltered rocky surface or underneath a boulder or clump of vegetation. A single

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

is laid. It is whitish with dark markings and is incubated by both parents for about 32 days. The young birds are fed on regurgitated food and

fledge Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between egg, hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnera ...

after around 35 days.

References

*Heather, Barrie D. & Robertson, Hugh (1996) ''The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand'', Viking. *Jaramillo, Alvaro; Burke, Peter & Beadle, David (2003) ''Field Guide to the Birds of Chile'', Christopher Helm, London. *Pizzey, Graham & Knight, Frank (1997) ''The Graham Pizzey & Frank Knight Field Guide to the Birds of Australia'', HarperCollins, London. *Watling, Dick (2001) ''A Guide to the Birds of Fiji & Western Polynesia'', Environmental Consultants (Fiji), Suva. {{Taxonbar, from=Q62575749, from2=Q76502 grey noddy Birds of the Pacific Ocean Birds of Chile Birds of the Kermadec Islands Birds of the Pitcairn Islands grey noddy grey noddy Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN