Terns the Family Sequence of Christidis & Boles (1994), Who Adopted That of Sibley Et Al

Text extracted from Gill B.J.; Bell, B.D.; Chambers, G.K.; Medway, D.G.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, T.H. 2010. Checklist of the birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. 4th edition. Wellington, Te Papa Press and Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Pages 191, 223, 230 & 235-237.

Order CHARADRIIFORMES: Waders, Gulls and Terns The family sequence of Christidis & Boles (1994), who adopted that of Sibley et al. (1988) and Sibley & Monroe (1990), is followed here.

Suborder LARI: Skuas, Gulls, Terns and Skimmers Condon (1975) and Checklist Committee (1990) recognised three subfamilies within the Laridae (Larinae, Sterninae and Megalopterinae) but this division has not been widely adopted. We follow Gochfeld & Burger (1996) in recognising gulls in one family (Laridae) and terns and noddies in another (Sternidae). The sequence of species for Stercorariidae and Laridae follows Peters (1934) and for Sternidae follows Bridge et al. (2005).

Family STERNIDAE Bonaparte: Terns and Noddies Sterninae Bonaparte, 1838: Geogr. Comp. List. Birds: 61 – Type genus Sterna Linnaeus, 1758.

Most recommendations from a new study of tern and noddy relationships, based on mtDNA (Bridge et al. 2005), have already been adopted by the Taxonomic Subcommittee of the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (Sangster et al. 2005) and the American Ornithologists’ Union Committee on Classification and Nomenclature (Banks, R.C. et al. 2006). This follows many years of disagreement about the generic classification of terns for which 3–12 genera have recently been used (see Bridge et al. 2005). The genera and their sequence recommended by Bridge et al. (2005) are accepted here, with the exception that we place the crested tern in Sterna rather than Thalasseus, because the evidence for the latter association is weaker (Sangster et al. 2005).

Genus Sternula Boie Sternula Boie, 1822: Isis von Oken, Heft 5: col. 563 – Type species (by monotypy) Sterna minuta Linnaeus = Sternula albifrons (Pallas).

Sternula nereis Gould Fairy Tern Sternula nereis Gould, 1843: Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1842 (10): 140 – Bass Strait.

Predominantly an Australian species (nominate subspecies) of the south and west coasts, with two other subspecies: S. nereis exsul (Mathews, 1912) in New Caledonia and S. nereis davisae in New Zealand. One possible record from Norfolk Island (White 1937, Hitchcock 1959, Hermes et al. 1986, Higgins & Davies 1996).

Sternula nereis davisae Mathews & Iredale New Zealand Fairy Tern Sterna (alba, sp. nov.?) Potts, 1871: Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 3: 106 – Plains from the Rangitata to the Rakaia, Canterbury. Junior primary homonym of Sterna alba Sparrman, 1786. Sterna nereis; Buller 1873, History of the Birds of N.Z., 1st edition: 285. Not Sternula nereis Gould, 1843. Sternula nereis davisae Mathews & Iredale, 1913: Ibis 1 (10th ser.): 245 – New Zealand. Sterna nereis davisae (Mathews & Iredale); Oliver 1930, New Zealand Birds, 1st edition: 245.

Rare; known to breed only on the coasts of Northland at Ruakaka–Waipu, Mangawhai–Pakiri and the Kaipara Harbour (Parrish & Pulham 1995, Pulham 2004); formerly used to breed at Tauranga, the lower North Island coast and inland on eastern South Island shingle riverbeds (MacDonald 1953, Oliver 1955, Parrish & Pulham 1995). Moves locally, but not wholly migratory. Recently seen: 1988, 2002 and 2005 in the Firth of Thames (Taylor 1990, Battley & Pulham 2005); 1999 at the Manawatu River estuary (Medway 2001a); and 2004 in the Bay of Plenty (Cuming & Barnard 2005, Scofield 2006). Fossil records from North Island dunes (Millener 1991). Supposed midden records on Chatham Island were misidentifications (Holdaway et al. 2001).