The Arctic tern has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates along a convoluted route from its northern breeding grounds to the Antarctic coast. Once it has finished nesting it takes to the sky for another long southern migration.
About Arctic tern in brief
The Arctic tern has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates along a convoluted route from its northern breeding grounds to the Antarctic coast for the southern summer. Once it has finished nesting it takes to the sky for another long southern migration. Arctic terns are medium-sized birds with a length of 28–39 cm and a wingspan of 65–75 cm. They are mainly grey and white plumaged, with a redorangish beak and feet, white forehead, a black nape and crown, and white cheeks. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English \”stearn\”, \”tern\”. The specific paradisaea is from Late Latin paradisus, \”paradise\”. The Scots names picktarnie, tarrock and their many variants are also believed to be onomatopoeic, derived from the distinctive call. A 2013 tracking study shows average annual migrations of half a dozen Arctic Terns in the Netherlands. The birds follow a somewhat convoluted course in order to take advantage of prevailing winds, and will, based on the above research, travel over 4 million km during its lifetime, some 2 million km in a year. The long journey ensures that this bird sees two summers per year and more daylight than any other creature on the planet. One example of this bird’s remarkable long-distance flying abilities involves an Arctic Tern ringed as an unfledged chick on the Farne Islands, Northumberland, UK, in the northern summer of 1982, which reached Melbourne, Australia in October 1982, just three months from fledging – a journey of over 22,000 km.
Another example is that of a chick ringed in Labrador, Canada, on 23 July 1928. It was found in South Africa four months later. A 2010 study using tracking devices attached to the birds showed that the above examples are not unusual for the species. Eleven birds that bred in Greenland or Iceland covered 70,900 km on average in the year, with a maximum of 81,600 km. On their south, these birds roughly followed the coast of Europe and Africa, flying approximately halfway to Australia before turning south to reach the southern tip of Africa, before turning east. One bird flew along the south coast of Australia before passing between Tasmania and the Antarctic, passing between Australia and South Africa. The short distance between these areas is 19,000 km, with the shortest distance between the two areas being 19,00 km – the equivalent of a trip from Earth to the Moon. The difference from previous estimates is due to birds’ taking meandering courses rather than following a straight route as was previously assumed.
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This page is based on the article Arctic tern published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
