Black-fronted Tern

About the Black-fronted Tern

The black-fronted tern (Chlidonias albostriatus), sea martin, ploughboy, or tarapiroe (Māori), is a medium-small tern endemic to New Zealand. Black-fronted terns can be found in coastal habitats from the southern tip of the North Island to the eastern South Island as well as Stewart Island. Their breeding range is restricted to the South Island, where they will form breeding colonies on braided river islands.

The species is globally and nationally endangered, due to its small and declining national population. Black-fronted terns are vulnerable to a range of threats, including predation by introduced mammals, habitat loss (land use changes and weed encroachment), resource abstraction (gravel and water), human disturbance, and climate change.

German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster described the black-fronted tern from a specimen collected at Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough in 1832, giving it the binomial name Sterna antarctica, which had already been used for the Antarctic tern by French naturalist René Lesson the previous year.

The first valid description of the species was by George Robert Gray in 1845, when it was described as Hydrochelidon albostriata. Its specific... Wikipedia →