Name:Sterna bergiii
Alias:Thalasseus bergii,Great Crested Tern
Outline:Wader
Family:Charadriformes Ternidae C.Tern
length:45-51cm
Weight:170-250g
Life:15 years or so
IUCN:LC
The Great Crested Tern has six subspecies.
Large crested terns are resident birds and often travel in flocks. They frequently fly over the sea, with their mouths pointing straight down, their wings stirring slowly, and sometimes soaring in the air, where they can search for and find underwater fish. When the fish is found, the two wings are closed, and suddenly dive into the water to hunt, and the wings rise immediately after the capture. Sometimes they float on the surface of the sea for long periods of time. Or bathe in the shallow waters of the sea. At night, it lives on overhangs or rocks on the shore. They feed mainly on fish. They also eat crustaceans, mollusks and other Marine invertebrates. Foraging is mainly on the surface.
The breeding season is from May to June. They often nest together and breed. Nest spacing is more than one meter. They usually nest on sandy or sandy ground with sparse dwarf plants near the sea. The nest is very simple. It is mainly by the parent birds to dig a shallow pit on the sandy ground without any inner cushion. Each clutch lays 12 eggs, occasionally 3. The color of the eggs is earth gray, white, off-white, milky white, or skin yellow, with reddish-brown or black-brown spots. The shape of the egg is pointed oval and the size is 58-66×40-45 mm, with an average of 58.7×41.8 mm.
Listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) 2018 ver 3.1 - Not Threatened (LC).
It was included in the List of Land Wild Animals under State Protection that are beneficial or have important economic and scientific research value (Item 209) issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000.
Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021) Level 2.
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