Brown noddy

Brown noddy
Brown noddies nesting in Tubbataha Reef National Park in the Philippines.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Laridae
Genus: Anous
Species: A. stolidus
Binomial name
Anous stolidus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

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.

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 under the binomial name Sterna stolida.[2] The genus Anous was introduced by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens in 1826.[3] The genus name Anous is Ancient Greek for "stupid" or "foolish". The specific name stolidus is Latin and also means "stupid" or "foolish".[4]

There are four subspecies:[5]

Description

The brown noddy is 38–45 cm (15–18 in) in length with a wingspan of 75–86 cm (30–34 in) and a weight of 150–272 cm (59–107 in). The plumage is a dark chocolate-brown with a pale-grey or white crown and forehead. It has a narrow incomplete white eye-ring.[6] The tail is long and wedge-shaped, and the feet and legs are dark.[7]

Behaviour

Breeding

The brown noddy is a colonial bird, usually nesting on cliffs, trees, or bushes. It occasionally lays its eggs on the bare ground. The nest itself is usually a platform nest, made of sticks and twigs.[8]

In their nuptial displays, the female and male bow and nod to each other. Courtship feeding and flights accompany this, in addition to the transfer of a small, freshly caught fish from the male to the female.[8]

This bird lays a clutch of one pink cream egg with lilac and chestnut maculation. The egg usually measures around 52 by 35 millimetres (2.0 by 1.4 in). This egg is incubated by both sexes for 33 to 36 days, with each parent incubating for one or two days while their mate is feeding at sea. After the chick hatches, it grows quickly; usually reaching the weight of the parents in three weeks.[8] When it fledges, about six to seven weeks after hatching,[7] it can sometimes weigh more than the parents, although this weight is lost quickly once it starts to fly. At this point, the fledgling is starting to rely on its parents less and less as it learns how to provide for itself.[8]

Diet

The brown noddy forages by swooping over the water and dipping down to catch small squid and fish.[7]

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Anous stolidus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, Volume 1 (in Latin) (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 137.
  3. ↑ Stephens, James Francis (1826). General zoology, or Systematic natural history, by George Shaw. Volume 13, Part 1. London: G. Kearsley. p. 139. The title page gives the year as 1825.
  4. ↑ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 48, 366. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Coursers, noddies, gulls, terns, auks & sandgrouse". World Bird List Version 7.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  6. ↑ Gochfeld, M.; Burger, J.; Kirwan, G.M.; Garcia, E.F.J. "Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 17 April 2017. (Subscription required (help)).
  7. 1 2 3 Vanner, Michael (2004). The Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Bath, England: Parragon. p. 164. ISBN 0-75258-734-X.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Hauber, Mark E. (1 August 2014). The Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World's Bird Species. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-226-05781-1.

Sources

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